[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.

All the basic information should be in the object itself.

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

In my early work I didn't use much colour. I had no confidence about how I could do this.

I thought the objects we value least because they were ubiquitous were actually the most extraordinary.

When I go to China I see many artists whose work reflects on aspects of contemporary popular culture but obviously the history of Western art is not part of their own tradition.

I wanted to make new works of very contemporary objects, which I thought was interesting because many of them are manufactured in China, but these objects are universal, they go across all languages, all cultures.