And then I went round the corner and there's a Van Gogh portrait, and you just think, well, this is another level. A higher level, actually. I love the Sargent, but it's not the level of Van Gogh.

It's very British to go about to see something unusual and paint it.

You must plan to be spontaneous.

When you stop doing something, it doesn't mean you are rejecting the previous work. That's the mistake; it's not rejecting it, it's saying, 'I have exploited it enough now and I wish to take a look at another corner.'

I paint what I like, when I like and where I like.

I'm always excited by the unlikely, never by ordinary things.

Well you can't teach the poetry, but you can teach the craft.

People criticized me for my photography. They said it's not art.

A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.

We live in an age where the artist is forgotten. He is a researcher. I see myself that way.

I draw flowers every day and send them to my friends so they get fresh blooms every morning.

Laugh a lot. It clears the lungs.

What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing. You wouldn't be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.

I haven't stopped painting or drawing - I've just added another medium.

It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work.

Photographs aren't accounts of scrutiny. The shutter is open for a fraction of a second.

To me, the world's rather beautiful if you look at it. Especially nature.

Always live in the ugliest house on the street - then you don't have to look at it.

Listening is a positive act: you have to put yourself out to do it.

Shadows sometimes people don't see shadows. The Chinese of course never paint them in pictures, oriental art never deals with shadow. But I noticed these shadows and I knew it meant it was sunny.

I worked in the NHS as a hospital orderly during my national service, and people thought it was a noble service. But over the years it's lost its humanity.

I'm a very early riser, and I don't like to miss that beautiful early morning light.

I've always wanted to be able to paint the dawn.

I was aware that the teaching of drawing was being stopped almost 30 years ago. And I always said, 'The teaching of drawing is the teaching of looking.' A lot of people don't look very hard.