[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 think that the exchange is very important. Before I did the exhibition in Shanghai, I was a judge for the John Moores Painting Prize and that was very interesting for me, because some of the judges are Chinese and some are British, and we look at the work together. It was fascinating that most of the time we were in complete agreement, but some of the time we were not. People send their works from all over China. For a foreigner, this gave me a very good picture about what is happening in China and its art today.

When I look at the objects that I draw, it seems to me so obvious about the contemporary world - these are our world.

I would never put a sculpture in front of a painting, so that it is difficult to see the painting. I always place each thing so you can see it isolated. You can focus on every individual work.

If you try to copy something exactly you won't get it correct, because you don't share the same tradition and context.

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

It's just that some things more important for this and less important for that, and this is true regardless the style of the art.