I used to use a lot of words in the paintings but stopped because it created a narrative - or an answer to a question.

I sometimes use music as way of getting back to a certain time, dredging up stuff from the past and putting it down on canvas.

Some of my work is very instinctive, some of my favourite things I've ever done are just two minute sketches, nothing is better when you get it like that so quick, then other work takes months.

I don't really need to be inspired by literature though. At the end of the day it's colour and imagery moved around until it works.

Women really like the horses, more so than men.

Sometimes I just want to sit and write at a clean table and not get paint all over my hands.

Painting can be like poetry but as somebody who creates both I feel the necessity for both so they cant be that similar. Sometimes I think it's as basic as not wanting to get dirty.

The spirit of a painting is very hard to explain and articulate. I can't say it's not intentional because that is the mark I'm trying to hit, however I don't feel I have much control over it.

If you can see a world within a portrait I would be happy with that. I don't want to tell the story with a painting, though. I'm trying to get away from the story- from the beginning and the ending.

I have no way of knowing what you are going to feel when you look at one of my paintings; I only know what I feel.

I like to listen to a lot of classical music when I'm painting, the most simplistic stuff I can find. I like simple piano.

The capacity to learn is a gift

I know people who grow old and bitter. I want to keep making a fresh start. I don't want them to defeat me. That would be suicidal.

Historians tell the story of the past, novelists the story of the present.

Only a fairy tale calls a constant condition 'happiness'.

For the rest of my life?" His voice softens. "Do you want that, Ella May? Do you want me eternally, infinitely, forever, till death do us part?

Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason: their long beards, and pretences to foretell events.

If I'd known it was going to be the last time he'd ever hold me, I'd have paid better attention.

To be loved is to be fortunate, but to be hated is to achieve distinction.

I really like the P!nk song with the guy from fun., 'Just Give Me a Reason.'