There's a magic that comes from playing entirely to who you are. I've got my specialist subject - in the Mastermind sense - and I wouldn't change it, or who I am.

The studio is a laboratory, not a factory. An exhibition is the result of your experiments, but the process is never-ending. So an exhibition is not a conclusion.

In the end, it doesn't really matter what you paint. It's all just a routine to connect yourself finally with other people.

There was a point in time where the thought of people even talking about me made me anxious. Physically.

The studio is a place where I can experiment before I'm prepared for an idea to become a body of work, or a new way of working, or a way of working that can sustain me over a period of time.

When I left the Royal College, I decided I would only make paintings that I would want to look at myself, that felt close to my life.

Sometimes, as I feel a door or an exit point in my work is closing, I'll try to create an opening so as not to stifle the creative process, which I see as a process that's never-ending.

Often I think changes within my work have been seen as sudden changes or sharp changes, but for me they're not that sudden. They have been there in the studio, but not so much in public.

I'm aware that success can overwhelm you. The perception of you can be elevated to such a status that it's not you any more.

The world is full of grief and no peace but every body has a different way of ending it.

The limitation prompting folly " was an attitude of superiority so dense as to be impenetrable.

I've tried to maintain my independence in Congress. Sometimes that has meant opposing my own party leaders.

Do not seek after what you yearn for, seek the source of the yearning itself.

The abuser knows where you work. Even if a woman goes underground at night, the abuser knows where to find her during the day.

When training young horses "There are many types of bits for many different disciplines, but the severity of ALL bits lies in the hands holding them."

Squash - that's not exercise, it's flagellation.

We need a coat with two pockets. In one pocket there is dust, and in the other pocket there is gold. We need a coat with two pockets to remind us who we are.

The audience is astonishingly friendly and tolerant of even the slightest dab, but is limited in its willingness to look either deeply or at length.