'The Night Cafe' and 'The Starry Night' still emit such pathos, density, and intensity that they send shivers down the spine. Whether Van Gogh thought in color or felt with his intellect, the radical color, dynamic distortion, heart, soul, and part-by-part structure in these paintings make him a bridge to a new vision and the vision itself.

It took the Metropolitan Museum of Art nearly 50 years to wake up to Pablo Picasso. It didn't own one of his paintings until 1946, when Gertrude Stein bequeathed that indomitable quasi-Cubistic picture of herself - a portrait of the writer as a sumo Buddha - to the Met, principally because she disliked the Museum of Modern Art.

The style of ancient Egyptian art is transcendently clear, something 8-year-olds can recognize in an instant. Its consistency and codification is one of the most epic visual journeys in all art, one that lasts 30 dynasties spread over 3,000 years.

Art is for anyone. It just isn't for everyone. Still, over the past decade, its audience has hugely grown, and that's irked those outside the art world, who get irritated at things like incomprehensibility or money.

I like to paint pictures with words, 'cause I can't draw for anything.

I like art; if I could just draw pictures all day, I would, but I can't; I'm horrible. I practiced at it, still didn't get better - gave it up. I'm good with words, though, so I write music, poetry; sometimes I just journal in my phone.

'Dancing With the Stars' has become a phenomenon, and when I look at that type of reality show, it's like a variety show.

California is always in my mind.

I do do a lot of talking, because it saves me listening.

East Yorkshire, to the uninitiated, just looks like a lot of little hills. But it does have these marvelous valleys that were caused by glaciers, not rivers. So it is unusual.

Tragedy is a literary concept.

I value my friends.

I went to art school actually when I was sixteen years old.

As for the world of fashion and celebrity, I have the usual interest in the human comedy, but the problems of depiction absorb me more.

I've always felt very English.

I was 18 when I first visited London, I'm very provincial like that, but I must confess the moment I got to America I thought: This is the place. It was more open, with 24-hour cities and pubs and restaurants that didn't close.

I'm a natural sceptic.

I think cubism has not fully been developed. It is treated like a style, pigeonholed and that's it.

In fact, most artists want to make things a bit more difficult for themselves as they go along, to challenge themselves.

But, I would always be thinking of how pictures are constructed and colour, how to use it, I mean you're using it for constructing, makes you think about it, the place did as well.

I'm a bit claustrophobic, I know that now.

Yes, I did, I mean I painted er, in a kind of abstract expressionist way, because of course that was exciting.

But slowly I began to use cameras and then think about what it was that was going on. It took me a long time, I mean I actually played with cameras and photography for about 20 years.

I think the Enlightenment is leading us into a dark hole, really.