I think that the most important requirement is to capture the essence of a piece of art. You look at it, essentially absorb it, and you have to be able to understand it visually without having to think about how it was done. I was already able to do that as a child.

I wouldn't be ashamed to sell my own art for a lot of money.

The trick is to paint a picture that doesn't exist, and yet that fits perfectly into an artist's body of work.

Did I want to spend all my time working on a painting? No, I wanted to have fun, travel, meet women and live life.

You can't paint pictures of love. You can only imagine them. So I suppose I don't need a painting by another artist. I have enough of my own.

I went to the flea market in the morning and charged tourists money to take pictures of me. I looked pretty wild, with hair down to my waist, Indian robes, a floor-length fur coat. There must be lots of photos of me out there.

Most forgers are caught because they tell the wrong person about what they do.