A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure.

A painter's tastes must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art.

My work is purely autobiographical... It is about myself and my surroundings.

The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part of them as their flesh.

Now that I know what I want, I don't have to hold on to it quite so much.

Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.

The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art.

The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.

The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work.

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.

As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does.

I paint people not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.

I want paint to work as flesh.

I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them.

The model should only serve the very private function for the painter of providing the starting point for his excitement.

The painter must give a completely free rein to any feeling or sensations he may have and reject nothing to which he is naturally drawn.

The paintings that really excite me have an erotic element or side to them irrespective of subject matter.

When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't.

Whether it will convince or not, depends entirely on what it is in itself, what is there to be seen.

And, since the model he faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.