HERE ARE MY ANSWERS. I do wonder about these "light" interviews. I have done a few and I'm not sure what purpose they serve." What is your favourite this or that". It is more like a parlour game and should be played with friends. We did that last night and we all laughed a lot. When I try writing those answers down though they seem less funny. ( Schwarzenegger playing the lead role in my life story ) There is a temptation to try to be witty or profound since an honest answer is often too difficult and always too long. I'll try. 1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Away from the crowd, in a mood of open clarity when I feel I can see things clearly, connect to things. This could be working in the studio, at home, late at night, drawing, wandering around my house in the French countryside or lying with the one I love. Perfection doesn't happen that often but feels normal when it does. 2. What is your greatest fear? The death of my - no it is not even possible to write it down. 3. Which living person do you most admire and why? For the last questionnaire I wrote " obviously Geena Davis " but I have never been a very good fan. Too self centred perhaps. I admire many artists but not particularly as people, just for what they have made. I think I admire most people I meet. There are some people I don't admire and I try to avoid them. Isn't Posy Simmons just great ? Perhaps I tend to admire women more than men but that is probably not what the question is about. I have been a Tate trustee for the last four years and I admire many of the people I meet there. OK OK Ed Rusher. Brilliant artist, good looking and seems really nice. 4. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Taking out my frustration on those around me. 5. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Laziness in terms of work and bullying in terms of relationships. 6. What has been your most embarrassing moment? I make a fool of myself regularly and get teased for it. I have given up caring. You have to thicken your embarrassment skin if you want to put things out into the public arena. See this interview. I did recently pass out at the Montreux jazz festival ( I was there because I drew the poster ) I had to be dragged into the fresh air by the security guards and then phone my wife and gallerist to explain. It was very hot. 7. What vehicles do you own? I think cars should be banned now. Till they are I will enjoy using them. I drive a scruffy Ford Crown Victoria ( the kind most American Taxi drivers and police use ). Then there is a VW Golf GTI for buzzing around London and my favourite is a classic Eighties French Peugeot diesel Estate - muddy and fully unloaded. I use bikes until they are stolen. I have a nice red tractor to cut the grass too. I just bought some canoes to travel the French rivers. If I lived by the sea I would sail. I'm good at sailing. I like to drive. I have always been drawn to vehicles but I dislike horses and they definitely dislike me. 8. What is your greatest extravagance? I'm not sure it's an extravagance since it is very helpful to me in making my own work but I buy quite a lot of art. Nothing very expensive. Russian Icons, Japanese prints, work by young artists and prints by older ones. I have swapped a few works with other artists too. Museums are great but it is also good to own art, to know a picture over time - to notice different things each time you look at it. I have put a lot of these in my other extravagance which is a fourteenth century house in France. 9. What is your most treasured possession? Did I mention this house in France? I insure things and try not to mind if they disappear. I like property, I have had a studio in an old warehouse in Shoreditch since the mid eighties and recently bought a nice little Victorian flat fronted house in De Beauvoir. ( Islington or Hackney depending on your mood). However, that which I could hardly bear to loose would be my computer files. 10. Where would you like to live? I'm nearly fifty , I guess I live where I want to or I wouldn't still be stuck in London which I kind of hate. I fantasize living full time in France but not for the time being. A lot of artists mix the two, a studio in New York and one in the country. The reason I know the Loire Valley is because Alexander Calder did that and left his house and studio near Tours as a foundation . I was invited to work there for six months and I fell in love with the area. 11. What makes you depressed? It's hard to tell. I can't bear to read newspapers or even listen to the news much. Too depressing. On a personal level I often feel very flat after finishing a big project. Beyond that it is a mystery, stress perhaps, dilemmas. The world seems distant, nothing radiates. It lifts quite quickly. 12. What do you most dislike about your appearance? So I write "double chin" and then everyone I meet quietly checks it out - no thanks. 13. Who would play you in a movie of your life? My daughter says Pierce Brosnan but I don't find him very appealing. I always wanted to look like Paul Newman but I look more like my Jewish Ukrainian grandfather. James Cahn ? 14. What is your most unappealing habit? My wife says I leave toothpaste around my mouth. My elder daughter says I put my tongue out when I eat. My youngest daughter checks my nose. I fear that I tend to tease, a bad habit picked up from my father. As I employ more people I try very hard not to do the office "ha ha you are so useless" thing. I often talk to people while I'm in the lavatory, even on the phone. So little time. 15. What is your favourite smell? Lavender, it reminds me of teenage romance. I often break off a head and put it in my top pocket. Beyond that I can't write in a national newspaper. 16. What is your favourite word? Lovely and excellent. 17. What is your favourite book? For me, books are for ploughing through, consuming. I give them away if I liked them and dump them if I didn't. 18. What is your fancy dress costume of choice? I've never been to a fancy dress party but I like the cowboy , goucho look. ( Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ) 19. Radiator or air conditioning? I don't understand this question but I don't like air conditioning and I just bought some very nice reconditioned radiators for my house in France. 20. Cat or dog? I love all animals except most French bugs and sharks and the worst, scorpions. Oh and Moray eels. I have two lovely jet-black cats. 21. Is it better to give or to receive? It's not as easy to give as you might imagine. giving to people you care about can be tricky. I don't much like to receive gifts but I love favours. 22. What is your guiltiest pleasure? I should feel more guilt. I'm quite indulgent. 23. What do you owe your parents? My Father taught me concentration and my mother patience. I am left with an inability to communicate with men, which I blame on my father and a need to please women, which I blame on my mother. My Mother supported me in my ambition to be an artist despite my dad's fears. My Father thought he knew nothing about art but actually had a great eye for design. 24. To whom would you most like to say sorry and why? I once looked on as a slightly simple boy at school was bullied. One could try apologizing to the victims of white male Europeans 25. What or who is the greatest love of your life? No surprises, my wife and children and being an artist. 26. Which living person do you most despise and why? Is Margaret Thatcher still living ? It was tough growing up during her reign, War aside, I think Blaire's' critics have short memories. 27. Have you ever said "I love you" without meaning it? No, I don't think so. I used to work with a gallerist who finished every phone call with :"love you." Though I say it quite often I still feel the words have great power and meaning. 28. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? What do I know ? Kind of. My elder daughter has banned me from using the word "medieval". 29. What has been your biggest disappointment? Not having a nuclear family is tough going but maybe having one is just as difficult. I would have liked to be asked to do the Venice Biennale and have a good gallery in New York but there is still time and I'm busy enough. 30. What is your greatest regret? Nick Hornby wrote something about people being destroyed by the burden of their regrets, or rather that the secret of surviving adulthood is living with your mistakes. I wish I had talked more with my father while it was still possible. I know so little about him apart from by watching him. I think I really talked to him twice. 31. When and where were you happiest? My mother took me out of school for half a term when I was four. I spent the days at home watching her in the kitchen and hanging around the house. I remember this as a very happy time. Between 11 and 14, I raced sailing boats and was a national champion in a small kind of dinghy. This was in Pool harbour and I met a lot of other children including girls. I had four girlfriends, two Sarah's and two Jane's, all very innocent; but happy times. Spending every day doing what I loved at art school was liberating and exciting. I met teachers who were active artists, who seemed like real people, and treated me as a real person. My twenties were full of anxiety and travel, energy and new experiences. Better forget the thirties and here I am near the end of my forties with a fair amount of baggage, somewhat stressed, pulled in many directions, often tired, but closer to what I really want and like. 32. When did you last cry, and why? Yesterday in the village church down the hill. My three year old and I lit candles for my parents. I don't think she noticed. 33. How do you relax? I don't much. I smoke occasionally. I think I only relax here in France, doing up the house and garden, lugging stuff around. Recently I have made photographic trips to Norway, Cornwall and Japan, just driving and taking photos of the landscape. That is kind of relaxing. I like to draw. 34. How often do you have sex? Does anybody answer this question ? Last year I was at a collectors dinner party in Boston and the hostess leaned over and whispered: " the woman opposite you has sex every night and anal sex twice a week". 35. Have you ever had a same sex experience? Kind of I like the idea but have never fancied another man. 36. What single thing would improve the quality of your life? More hours in the day. 37. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Probably my one-person exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1993 when I was thirty-four. And the painting I just finished. 38. What keeps you awake at night? I sleep pretty well. When alone I tend to work too late. It's two thirty now. 39. What song would you like played at your funeral? Bert Kaempherts "Swinging Safari". Then Harry Nielsen's "Without you". Finish with Led Zeppelin "Stairway to heaven". 40. How would you like to be remembered? I would rather people just got on with things. If some people continue to enjoy my paintings that would be nice. I don't think any of it matters too much. 41. What is the most important lesson life has taught you? My Father always quoted his college motto: "manners maketh man". I think it's very important to be kind. Concentration is a great tool. And as my genius college tutor often said:" Fuck 'em".