Romanticism is not just about being in a fixed state of endless beauty, because you can't live like that or live on that, that's what I've learnt..

Theres something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. Thats something I wanted in my paintings..

The faces people make when they are photographed and the face they have when you draw them are very different..

That's what it's all about - making art is making something live forever. Human beings especially - we can't hold on to them in any way. Painting and….

I don't think meeting people that I've done pictures of spoils it at all because I like the really human sides of people. To meet them and see that t….

I think everybody can be beautiful. Anybody can have beauty. It's about how you look at the world, in a way, and how you treat yourself..

I lived in London for a time in the '90s and I love it here. You know, I just go and see shows and have great dinners and walk around..

It is such an amazing moment when people realize what they are and what they can be, and they start putting themselves out into the world. I think yo….

To paint well, I need to be enraptured by my subjects..

You really need faith in yourself to make art and to stand up for what you believe in..

Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman was one of those books I read in my mid-twenties that was life-changing. I think I had a very blac….

I like the really human sides of people. To meet them and see that they’re complicated and weird or shy or any of those things sort of makes it even ….