In the period of '60s to the '90s, British art schools were small, and the number of student was small. The personal contact was great.

When I was a very young student I loved and admired the work of Sam Beckett, who is famously pessimistic, and whose writing is an extraordinary examination of emptiness. I wanted to be like Beckett. I don't have the same attitude toward the world, I'm naturally optimistic, and so of course I could never be like Beckett. You can't force yourself to become like someone you admire.

[I] don't want people to see it [paintings] as a specific intention on my part. If somebody has that interest in these objects, of course they can see that, but from my own point of view, I'd rather stay as neutral as possible.

I greatly admired him as a teacher I didn't teach the same way as Josef Albers at all.

In Britain the power of authority was weakened. There was much more individual freedom and there was great academic freedom.

You can't honour someone by copying them or trying to be exactly like them.

I think from an artist's point of view, everything in art, in fact everything in the world is available as material.