I came to painting through sculpture, to images through objects. I think that images sit in the middle, somewhere between objects and words.

The person you admire was true to himself. You can only truly honour him by being true to yourself.

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 the studio, it took me a long time to work out how to make paintings that had the intensity that I was able to create by painting whole rooms. There is a very limited number of colours but there are many variations. I decided to use the purest palette that I could.

Usually people start with painting and then go on to make installations; my painting came from installation.

In a sense [Joseph] Albers was an authoritarian teacher. He had rules about most things and very definite ideas.

There was something really wonderful about being able to feel confident about doing my first exhibition in China, that people would have no trouble recognising the images and understanding my work. I also have a lot of freedom in the way I use colour, and I think that kind of freedom in colour is also understandable in every culture.