The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes--ah, that is where the art resides!

When I am asked, "What do you think of our audience?" I answer, "I know two kinds of audiences only--one coughing, and one not coughing."

When a piece gets difficult, make faces

My early paintings weren't that good - I was very influenced by Francis Bacon. But there was a kind of intensity there. And however influenced they may have been by other people, even my earliest paintings were recognisably my own.

This camera works like photosynthesis. It is as if you were Xeroxing your own face. The pictures have such physicality: their surface is like fine leather, stained from chemicals. Each one has a body and is more than an image.

If I hung one of my paintings next to someone else's, I knew mine would kind of pop off the wall.