A common misperception of me is that I am a victim. I am not a victim. I am just honest about how things affect me.

I do have a very, very big problem with someone who saw me coming and exploited me as a mascot.

I think there is a total equality for me between painting a literary figure or Kate Moss or my Mum or a dog or a bird. To me, they are all absolutely equal.

Even in the most horrendous situations there is always something to smile about.

Perhaps the people I choose to paint are often objects of derision - celebrity is a bit of a put-down term, isn't it? But to me they are my world.

I'm looking forward to being old, to be able to accept what I am and become self-sufficient. Mid-forties is a good age and it's not too far away.

I like strong/vulnerable interesting women, and then sometimes I like painting beautiful men, like Kurt Cobain, or Mr Darcy.

I wanted my work to be seen for free in a public space, I want to be up there with Pollock and de Kooning, one of the big boys.

Books are my one luxury. I have a lot of large coffee-table-size art books, in the shelves above my bed, about people like Warhol, Basquiat and Velasquez.

I like to watch old films. Meet Me in St Louis, Cul-de-Sac and Buffalo 66 are some of my favourites.

On Christmas Day I'll head off for a couple of laps around the Serpentine, or a trek around the whole of Hyde Park. Or I'll walk right across town, with Curtis, my son Jamie's bull mastiff.

Computers can bully us. A slow and unreliable system will bring even the toughest soul to their knees as they find themselves completely defenseless against the erratic whims of their rogue machine.

The boldness of asking deep questions may require unforeseen flexibility if we are to accept the answers.

I did 10 years of comedies and 10 years of Westerns. I really like to stay away from car chases. I prefer the more intimate film. You have a much more direct association with the emotions.

Singing in Gaelic is very, very natural to do. I think lends itself very much so to being sung.

The focus of subjectivity is a distorting mirror.

I'm pretty outdoorsy. My family used to live in the hills in the middle of nowhere pretty much. We literally used to have bow and arrows and air rifles and were throwing knives.

Imperceptibly the hours glide on, and beguile us as they pass.

Tennis is a world out of touch with reality

Do you want to tear your life apart and get rid of everything you've known as a lifestyle? Like seeing your family? Being with your friends? A fishing trip? A hunting trip? A night's sleep?

Taste is pursued at a less expense than fashion.