Criticism on my works is like this: you've worked hard all of your life, you went to Oxford, and you've done this and that, and you're an art critic. Your job is to unravel the "secret" or whatever, and you come across an entity like me. It's going to piss you off. Because there's no great secret, what you see is what you get, and anyone can understand what I'm doing. So, it's almost like I make this critic-person redundant, just by my attitude, and they resent me for that.

I don't ask for an apology because it's only tomorrow's fish-and-chip paper.

My influences were from Europe from between 1900 and 1945. My favorite artists were Egon Schiele or Edvard Munch. I wasn't interested in contemporary art at all.

Art is like a lover whom you run away from but who comes back and picks you up.

The reason why I'm popular as an artist in this country is because it suits the psyche of the nation at this time. Ten years ago, my work wouldn't have had any currency, any popularity at all. Before in this country, you had to be accepted. You had to be part of the group. Now it's probably more trendy to have a problem.

I'm a terrible cook, but if I could cook, I would see that in art as well, it's how much creative energy you put into something.

I've never been married because, first of all, I don't think I've ever seriously been asked by anyone who I wanted to marry. [...] And also I'm monogamous.