The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part of them as their flesh.

I could never put anything into a picture that wasn't actually there in front of me. That would be a pointless lie, a mere bit of artfulness.

The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work.

As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does

I am only interested in painting the actual person, in doing a painting of them, not in using them to some ulterior end of art. For me, to use someone doing something not native to them would be wrong.

Sometimes, when I've been staring too hard, I've noticed that I could see the circumference of my own eye.

It is the only point of getting up every morning: to paint, to make something good, to make something even better than before, not to give up, to compete, to be ambitious.