Elizabeth Peyton

“If art is any good, it has so much of a longer trajectory than one night. Contemporary art is separate from art openings. In the end, it depends on the strength of ideas in each piece.”

“I think 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 you can see it in people when it's happening. They look different.”

“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.”

“There's something in music that fascinates me - how it communicates emotion so immediately. That's something I wanted in my paintings.”

“I don't rise to the occasion unless I'm really moved.”

“No one is famous when they wake up in the morning, so it's nice seeing people in moments when they're just being themselves.”

“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.”

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

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

“I think little things are more powerful because they're more honest, so people feel them more strongly.”

“In 19th-century France, artists were part of government. Artists are very sensitive to their time. They're very thoughtful people - it makes sense to hear what they have to say.”

“I start listening to something, or I'm seeing somebody a lot or seeing their art. And then I just really want to make a picture of them.”

“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.”

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

“I love the idea that someone I like would have a piece of mine in their house and have a relationship with it.”

“A painting of a person can be descriptive, but for me it's about all the things that make up a picture - the feelings, the brushstrokes - more than describing somebody. People latch on to the personalities when they talk about my work and forget the other parts.”