Artists are labourers to their unconscious



Scottish artist John Byrne with a self-portrait. More John Byrne self-portraits here.

[UPDATE - Zadie Smith said: "[My] writing was an explosion of 18 years worth of reading all the time."
Graham Linehan talked about "practical procrastination" and said: "Your subconscious is this huge glacial thing under water that’s just doing a lot of work when you don’t realise it."]

Agnes B said on Radio 4:

"When you are designer you are like a sponge you don’t know where ideas come from."

John Byrne said:

"I am the labourer to my unconscious."

Michael Longley said:

"The raw material of experience… needs to settle to an imaginative depth where it can be transformed and emerge as art."

Francis bacon said:

"There’s this deep sea which we call the unconscious which we know nothing about. I always hope the most wonderful images will emerge from it."