“To devise these living pictures with simple well-known flowers seems to me to be the best thing to do in gardening.”

“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.”

“Death […] people nowadays seem to regard as something odd, whereas it is well known to be the commonest thing in the world.”

“I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention & one day I decided I had better things to do.”

“But aren't many gardens beautiful because they are imperfect?… aren't the strange, new flowers that arise by mistake or misadventure as pleasing as the well-tended and planned?”

“Culture is all the things and ideas ever devised by humans working and living together.”

“My first photo Picture? I was doing large pictures in gloss enamel... One day a photograph of Brigit Bardot fell into my hands, and I painted it into one of these pictures in shades of grey. I had had enough of bloody painting, and painting from a photograph seemed to me the most moronic.... thing that everyone could do.”

“We are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later.”

“People are beautifully made just like flowers in the garden!”

“I seem to have gathered a reputation for being a jerk in real life, because frankly fans make me uncomfortable. Complete strangers come up and talk to me like they've known me their whole lives, and for that reason I can seem a bit stand-offish… No, the whole "fan" thing confuses me.”