Quotes from Lucian Freud

As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does

Painting is sometimes like those recipes where you do all manner of elaborate things to a duck, and then end up putting it on one side and only using the skin.

I work from the people that interest me, and that I care about, in rooms that I live in and know. I use the people to invent my pictures, and I can work more freely when they are there.

The painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt.

The painter must give a completely free rein to any feeling or sensations he may have and reject nothing to which he is naturally drawn.

I never think about my style but just try and make the pictures look believable.

The paintings that really excite me have an erotic element or side to them irrespective of subject matter.

The character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art.

Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.