The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art

I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them.

Losing as much money as I can get hold of is an instant solution to my economic problems.

The process of creation becomes necessary to the painter perhaps more than is the picture. The process in fact is habit-forming

I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art what he thought it previously lacked. With me, it's what Yeats called the fascination with what's difficult. I'm only trying to do what I can't do.

The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art. Eliot said that art is the escape from personality, which I think is right. We know that Velázquez embezzled money from the Spanish court and wanted power and so on, but you can't see this in his art.

I have a hatred of habit and routine. And what dogs love is just that. They like regular everything, and I don't have regular anything. I have a timetable, but no routine.