I think if I was Trinidadian, I would latch more on to the myths and romanticise the place more. I don't think it's my place to do that - they're not really mine. I'm an outsider.

It's not about perfection. What's a perfect painting? What's interesting about a perfect painting?

It's still an escape for me, painting, so it also takes me elsewhere. I don't think I would do it otherwise.

What is bad painting? Picabia made some deliberately bad paintings, but they were by him, so great in a way.

Painting doesn't have a function, not in the way that music or film does... I mean, you can dance to music. Music can be used for a soundtrack, so it has a function in that sense, beyond itself. But painting doesn't... But I do believe that painting has a purpose.

I constantly have to negotiate with my doubts.

Painting becomes interesting when it becomes timeless.

I'm not one of those artists having people there lying around on their paintings, you know, like Hockney or whoever.

Seeing a play, listening to music - you'll always contextualize it in your own way. Whoever you are, wherever you are I think that's really important.

I also learned that you are affected by your environment, even if you try not to be. Color, light that is, matters because you want to do justice to it and also you get excited by it.

I would never finish a painting if I didnt have a deadline.

There could be a hundred paintings in every one painting, depending on when you stop.

I don't feel any real animosity towards critics when they write negative things. I think some are more perceptive than others. Some are very knowledgeable about painting. But it isn't something I have any influence over, so there isn't any point in worrying about it.

How do you complete a painting, really? There are paintings by so many different artists that are interesting precisely because they haven't really been completed.