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.

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.

My work is purely autobiographical... It is about myself and my surroundings.

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

When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't

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

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