The painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt.

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. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.

The model should only serve the very private function for the painter of providing the starting point for his excitement

The painting is always done very much with [the model's] co-operation. The problem with painting a nude, of course, is that it deepens the transaction. You can scrap a painting of someone's face and it imperils the sitter's self-esteem less than scrapping a painting of the whole naked body.

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 only secret I can claim to have is concentration, and that's something that can't be taught.

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