The paintings that really excite me have an erotic element or side to them irrespective of subject matter.

Since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture... it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.

The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real.

A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure.

As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does.

The aura given out by a person or object is as much a part of them as their flesh.

I want paint to work as flesh.

I remember Francis Bacon would say that he felt he was giving art what he thought it previously lacked. With me, it's what Yeats called the fascination with what's difficult. I'm only trying to do what I can't do.

My work is purely autobiographical... It is about myself and my surroundings.

The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art.

Painting is sometimes like those recipes where you do all manner of elaborate things to a duck, and then end up putting it on one side and only using the skin.

Whether it will convince or not, depends entirely on what it is in itself, what is there to be seen.

I am only interested in painting the actual person, in doing a painting of them, not in using them to some ulterior end of art. For me, to use someone doing something not native to them would be wrong.

There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.

I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them.

The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work.

I paint people not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.

Now that I know what I want, I don't have to hold on to it quite so much.

The picture is all he feels about it, all he thinks worth preserving of it, all he invests it with. If all the qualities which a painter took from the model for his picture were really taken, no person could be painted twice.

And, since the model he faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model.

The paintings that really excite me have an erotic element or side to them irrespective of subject matter.

A painter's tastes must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art.

The model should only serve the very private function for the painter of providing the starting point for his excitement.

The painter must give a completely free rein to any feeling or sensations he may have and reject nothing to which he is naturally drawn.

When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't.

Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.

I never think about my style but just try and make the pictures look believable.

You ask why I'm fascinated by the human figure? As a human animal, I am interested in some of my fellow animals: in their minds and bodies.

In school, I was playing old men and women, babies, Russian people, and all sorts of weird parts - a lot of comedy - and that's sort of like home to me.

The difference was you worked for Nixon, and with Ford.

I don't think Hank's home run record will ever be broken. There's no way.

What got my interested in science fiction was actually the American space program.

At times during high school and college I wished to be a sportswriter.

Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time.

I would like to state that my personal opinions are that the people of every country should decide by themselves what kind of government they want.

The way I look at it is, if you don't want somebody to know something, don't say it. If you don't want them to see you do something, don't do it.

I get invited to premieres, and I've been to a few fashion shows and stuff, but I always get really bored. I feel quite awkward. You have to wear something by them, and it all feels like, 'Why am I doing free advertising for you?'

I learned from a longtime farmer that pigs enjoy soothing music.

On an exhausted field, only weeds grow.

I don't hate Peter Robinson, and I don't think Peter Robinson hates me.

I don't take much pride in fake fighting.

We think of first love as sweet and valuable, a blessed if hazardous condition.

A lot of my work is a matter of reacting to surprises in life.

For a quick, healthy meal that's also fun for kids, I serve fish tacos: soft tortillas, lettuce, tomatoes, black beans and brown rice.

There are a few giant companies that I love, and I love Amazon. Their customer service is impeccable: sometimes, just for the hell of it, I'll sleep on a mattress for three years and return it.

I always assumed people wanted to hear me tell stories, but then I had 'The Sunset Tree.' It turned out, my own stories were the ones that registered with people the hardest.

All true theology has an evangelistic thrust, and all true evangelism is theology in action.

I allowed myself to think if I could be doing anything in the world, what would I be doing? And what came to mind is I'd be traveling a little bit, I'd be going to classes and I'd be going back to school.

I think artists are driven by the engine of their own talent, but it's a question of what use they put it to.