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.

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

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 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.

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.

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind

No Brasil não há outonomas as folhas caem- In Brazil there is no autumnbut the leaves fall

After all, this is America, and you can swap out the parts of yourself that don't work. You can rebuild yourself piece by piece.

There ain't no happy endings for half-bloods." Ryder ~ Darkest Before Dawn #3 The Veil Series

Every action we take everything we do is either a victory or defeat in the struggle to become what we want to be.

I'm not very good at dating. I'm very decisive. If I like someone, then they're my boyfriend. It's pretty straightforward.

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.

Energy is that amazing feeling that comes to life inside of you when you're happy and believe in yourself.

History does not record anywhere or at any time a religion that has any rational basis.

I read more and more and I came across this character, Caroline Weldon. Sometimes in history, you find these people that no one would dare create. They're too mad.