I've realized that I can do performances.

When you are older, you realise that everything else is just nothing compared to painting and drawing.

You had to be aware that I saw that photography was a mere episode in the history of the optical projection and when the chemicals ended, meaning the picture was fixed by chemicals, we were in a new era.

I can often tell when drawings are done from photographs, because you can tell what they miss out, what the camera misses out: usually weight and volume - there's a flatness to them.

Anyway I feel myself a bit on the edge on the art world, but I don't mind, I'm just pursuing my work in a very excited way. And there isn't really a mainstream anymore, is there?

Tobacco is America's greatest gift to the world!

I think I am seeing more clearly now than ever.

I generally only paint people I know, I'm not a flatterer really.

Spring is very energising to me.

The moment I got a very big studio, everything took off.

I think my father would have liked to have been an artist, actually. But I think he didn't quite have perhaps the drive or, I don't know, I mean he had a family to bring up I suppose.

I grew up in austerity in the 1940s and 1950s.

Like people, trees are all individuals.

I made a photograph of a garden in Kyoto, the Zen garden, which is a rectangle. But a photograph taken from any one point will not show, well it shows a rectangle, but not with ninety degree angles.

I live wherever I happen to be.

I don't value prizes of any sort.

All film directors, even the ones using 3-D today, want you to look at what they chose.

I go and see anything that's visually new, any technology that's about picture-making. The technology won't make the pictures different, but someone using it will.

My only worry is the painting I'm doing. Nothing else.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

I'm a natural sceptic.

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've always felt very English.

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

I value my friends.

Tragedy is a literary concept.

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.

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

California is always in my mind.

Fear brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. It's a test of character, for individuals and nations.

The framers hated the tyranny of King George, but they were also afraid of the mob. That's why they put so many checks and balances into our system, to guard against the excesses of a government that might be inflamed by public passion or perverted by a dictator's whim.

The ISI is above all a paramilitary organization. It doesn't do all that much collection of intelligence. It's not a very good spy agency, but it's good at running covert action.

During an economic crisis, what matters is that the government keeps its foot on the accelerator.

Images sometimes capture particular periods in history. The unreachable green light, beckoning from across the bay in 'The Great Gatsby,' has become a symbol of the yearning of America in the 1920s.

Panic is a natural human response to danger, but it's one that severely compounds the risk.

Frightened people want to protect themselves, sometimes without thinking about others. Often, they get angry and want to find someone to blame for catastrophe. Inevitably, they spread information without checking if it's true.

European Muslims need to feel ownership of security, rather than viewing the police as an occupying army.

The nation's chronic weakness is its political system, which is nearing dysfunction. If the U.S. can elect better political leadership, it should be able to manage problems better than most competitors.

Europeans don't like to talk about intelligence, and they often pretend their countries don't spy.

It's easier for China to assert its maritime power by creating artificial islands in the South China Sea than by defying the U.S. Pacific Fleet with an aircraft carrier.

Donald Trump tests the limits of campaign speech. He makes false statements and refuses to correct them. He attacks other religions and ethnic groups, inflaming domestic tension and foreign terrorist rage.

The value of catastrophic events is that they can help people face up to problems that are otherwise impossible to address.

Helping Wall Street regain confidence and stability was the last thing an angry public wanted in 2009 after the markets crashed. But without such support, markets can buckle and liquidity can disappear - often for decades, as has been the case in Japan.