Tracey Emin

There's all different kinds of artists. There's someone like Gary Hume, who makes very beautiful paintings; you look at his painting, you think, ooh, I feel better now. There's other artists who do the complete opposite, Bruce Nauman or someone like that, they're just there to fuck your mind up and give you almost like a headache and you come out thinking, oh my God what have I just seen? Then there's other artists who are just interested in communicating an idea. I come on the end of communicating an idea. I am never going to be the best visual artist in the world, it's not my point. But I've made a film that's about growing up, about girls, how they may react to something growing up and I just, I just . . . Show less «

I'm simply not willing to pay tax at 50%. So much here is simply not working now. The taxes are too high, there aren't enough incentives to work hard, and our politicians have put me off. We're paying through the nose for everything. I reckon it would mean me paying about 65p in every pound with tax, National Insurance and so on. At least in France their politicians have always understood the importance of culture and they have traditionally helped out artists with subsidy and some tax advantages. We simply have what I call 'ambition politicians' who go from one department to another for career reasons. We should never have got involved in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Nor should we have bid for the Olympics, which we've now got and cannot afford. Show less «

If I did stuff and everyone said it was wonderful and lovely, I'd think, ooh, what have I done wrong? I wouldn't trust the situation at all. Show less «

It was just a sweet thing. The idea of an art film going to a mainstream space. That's all; I liked the idea of it being on in Liverpool for three nights, or Manchester for three nights; of people going and paying their three quid and not feeling like they'd thrown themselves into the arena of contemporary art. Show less «

It's like a light bulb, women burn and burn and burn, with men it's just one big flash. At about 40, a male artist has this massive ejaculation and then the work - though not the prices - goes down. It goes back to the sex thing: women keep coming and coming, men just do it once. It's a metaphor for life. Show less «