“You will obtain a vision of matter that is perhaps fatiguing for your imagination, but pure and stripped of what the requirements of life make you add to it in external perception.”

A situation is always comic if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings.

The major task of the twentieth century will be to explore the unconscious, to investigate the subsoil of the mind.

The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.

Homo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable.

Life does not proceed by the association and addition of elements, but by dissociation and division.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

I believe I experience creativity at every moment of my life.

Genius is that which forces the inertia of humanity to learn.

It is the very essence of intelligence to coordinate means with a view to a remote end, and to undertake what it does not feel absolutely sure of carrying out.

Realism is in the work when idealism is in the soul, and it is only through idealism that we resume contact with reality.

I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action.

To drive out the darkness, bring in the light.

An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis.

The motive power of democracy is love.

It is emotion that drives the intelligence forward in spite of obstacles.

The movement of the stream is distinct from the river bed, although it must adopt its winding course.

The music comes first. When Geoff has made something the inspiration comes automatically. His music is very expressive. But still is is a very difficult process: I have to add something to his music, not push it away. It has to be equal, and I find that very difficult.

I know that some girls look up to me for certain things, like dyslexia, and that way I know that they like me for me, so it adds no pressure.

People always say it’s a shame someone as talented as Ryan Giggs or George Best before him never played in a World Cup or European Championship and I don’t want my name to be added to that list.

All the little things add up. Whether they were positive or negative, eventually you either see the amazing result or the biggest let down.

And then through editing, and finishing the effects and adding music, you get to make the movie better again. So I’m really hard on myself and on the movie.

Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.

What makes the production of my work so expensive? The whole installation thing – the construction, the objects, the technology. It really adds up.

There is great wisdom in this… but I would add that opinions differ significantly from arse-holes, in that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined.