If you close the door to the things you feel comfortable with, you will never discover the truth about yourself.

Today, in British education, we don't have that kind of freedom. Now there are many regulations, many rules, and bureaucracies in the education system. So, it doesn't have the flexibility that it had in the '60s, '70s, '80s.

When I told people that I was going to paint the big room magenta, many people thought that I was crazy.

I have never understood, for instance, why some people see contemporary art as divided between 'painting' and 'conceptual art', as though this represented a genuine division.

It is very important to develop the thing that you are naturally good at, that you are truly interested in.

I do think I paid a price as an artist, and I am trying to make up for it now - I work six days a week in the studio, and I've never been happier.

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