The Character Of The Artist

Painting Is Sometimes Like Those Recipes Where You Do All Manner Of Elaborate Things To A Duck, And Then End Up Putting It On One Side And Only Using The Skin.

The Painting Is Always Done Very Much With [the Model's] Co-operation. The Problem With Painting A Nude, Of Course, Is That It Deepens The Transaction. You Can Scrap A Painting Of Someone's Face And It Imperils The Sitter's Self-esteem Less Than Scrapping A Painting Of The Whole Naked Body.

I Remember Francis Bacon Would Say That He Felt He Was Giving Art What He Thought It Previously Lacked. With Me, It's What Yeats Called The Fascination With What's Difficult. I'm Only Trying To Do What I Can't Do.

It Is The Only Point Of Getting Up Every Morning: To Paint, To Make Something Good, To Make Something Even Better Than Before, Not To Give Up, To Compete, To Be Ambitious.

I Would Wish My Portraits To Be Of The People, Not Like Them. Not Having A Look Of The Sitter, Being Them.