I love my old paintings as postulates as fresh starting points but I have to destroy them. I have to make a new manifesto.

Unlike the expressionists, I have never been interested in renewing the world through the vehicle of art.

Asked what role he believes art plays in society, Baselitz replied, 'The same role as a good shoe, nothing more.

Art is visceral and vulgar - it's an eruption.

What counts most is finding new ways to get the world down in paint on my own terms.