I want paint to work as flesh.

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

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

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

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.