People who inspire me: Steve Jobs

I've long admired Steve Jobs, not just because he built one of the world's great companies, but because his ideas have influenced the way I think. I use Apple products every day, especially my MacBook Pro and iPhone, and I continue to be impressed by how intuitive, elegant and thoughtfully designed they are. Jobs understood that great technology isn't just about powerful features—it's about creating products that people genuinely enjoy using.

One of the lessons I value most from Steve Jobs is the power of focus. He believed that saying "no" to hundreds of good ideas was often more important than saying "yes" to a few great ones. In a world full of distractions, that's a principle I try to keep coming back to. I also admire his relentless pursuit of simplicity. He showed that making something simple is often much harder than making it complicated, and that great design begins with understanding the user's experience.

His life story is inspiring in its own right. Being forced out of the company he founded could have been the end of the story, but instead it became the beginning of one of the greatest comebacks in business history. He returned to Apple, transformed it from a struggling company into one of the most valuable businesses on Earth, and changed the way millions of people interact with technology. His vision, resilience and insistence on excellence continue to inspire me.

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I loved this biography about Steve jobs which I read in 2012.

Favourite quotes

• Don’t just live a life; build one.
• None of us are as creative as all of us.
• I’d rather be a Pirate than join the Navy.
• Do not try to do everything. Do one thing well.
• Follow your heart, but check it with your head.
• Innovation means saying ‘no’ to a thousand things.
• If you’re afraid of failing you won’t get very far.
• It isn’t the consumers’ job to know what they want.
• Focus does not mean saying yes, it means saying no.
• Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right.
• It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple.
• Our job is to read things that are not yet on the page.
• I hate the way people use PowerPoints instead of thinking.
• Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.
• Focus and simplicity…once you get there, you can move mountains.
• Don’t just follow your passion but something larger than yourself.
• If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.
• Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
• Let’s go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.
• The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.
• Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
• If you live each day as it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.
• Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.
• Listen to me. We’re here to make a dent in the universe. Otherwise why even be here?
• Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
• You cannot mandate productivity, you must provide the tools to let people become their best.
• You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.
• Do you want to sell sugar water all your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?
• It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.
• If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.
• It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.
• The greatest thing is when you do put your heart and soul into something over an extended period of time, and it is worth it.
• Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.
• What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
• Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful … that’s what matters to me.
• That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
• You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology. You can’t start with the technology and try to figure out where you’re going to sell it.
• We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.
• Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.
• You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Spectacular lighthouses around the world

As you can see, I'm completely hooked on lighthouses at the moment. What started as a photography project has quickly turned into another excuse to explore the world. Every lighthouse has its own story, shaped by the coastline, the weather and the people who built it. Some perch on impossibly narrow sea stacks, others stand alone on tiny islands or cling to dramatic cliffs where the ocean seems determined to reclaim them. Here are some of the most spectacular and unusual lighthouses I've discovered so far. 

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Favourite artists: Banksy

Banksy proves that art can be far more than something beautiful hanging on a gallery wall. His work is witty, provocative and deeply human, using simple, unforgettable images to challenge assumptions about war, consumerism, power, inequality and the absurdities of modern life. What I admire most is his ability to communicate profound ideas with remarkable clarity. A single stencil on a brick wall can spark conversations that books and speeches sometimes fail to inspire. He reminds us that great art doesn't just decorate the world—it awakens us to see it differently.

I also love the mystery that surrounds Banksy. By remaining anonymous, he has kept the focus where it belongs: on the work itself rather than the celebrity of the artist. There is something wonderfully subversive about creating priceless art in public spaces, freely accessible to anyone who walks past. Whether or not I agree with every message, I admire his courage, originality and refusal to play by the conventional rules of the art world. Banksy has shown that one person's creativity, imagination and sense of humour can capture the attention of millions while inviting us to question the world we so often take for granted.

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Favourite quotes

• Fight the fighters, not their wars.
• Speak softly, but carry a big can of paint.
• If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.
• You can win the rat race but you’re still a rat.
• People who enjoy waving flags don’t deserve to have one.
• Nobody ever listened to me until they didn’t know who I was.
• You don't need planning permission to build castles in the sky.
• I want to live in a world created by art, not just decorated with it.
• A wall is a very big weapon. It’s one of the nastiest things you can hit someone with.
• All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?
• I just want to make the world a better looking place. If you don't like it, you can paint over it!
• Graffiti's always been a temporary art form. You make your mark and then they scrub it off. Banksy
• If Michaelangelo or Leonardo Da Vinci were alive today they’d be making Avatar, not painting a chapel.
• When you go to an art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires.
• A recent survey or North American males found 42% were overweight, 34% were critically obese and 8% ate the survey.
• Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.
• We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.
• I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.
• I’d been painting rats for three years before someone said ‘that’s clever it’s an anagram of art’ and I had to pretend I’d known that all along.
• If you feel dirty, insignificant or unloved, then rats are a good role model. They exist without permission, they have no respect for the hierarchy of society, and they have sex 50 times a day.
• The human race is the most stupid and unfair kind of race. A lot of the runners don’t even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water. Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side. It’s not surprising a lot of people have given up competing altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk and shout abuse. What the human race needs is a lot more streakers.

People who inspire me: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein has always been one of the people I most admire. Of course, he revolutionised our understanding of the universe, but what draws me to him is something deeper than his scientific achievements. I love his insatiable curiosity, his childlike sense of wonder, and his willingness to embrace mystery rather than pretend to have all the answers. He reminds me that the greatest minds are often the most humble in the face of the unknown.

As someone who loves collecting quotes, many of my favourites are Einstein's. They reveal a side of him that is often overlooked—a man who was not only a brilliant scientist, but also a deeply philosophical and spiritual thinker. He understood that imagination, awe and mystery are essential parts of the human experience, and that science and spirituality need not be in conflict. His life is a reminder that the pursuit of truth is at its best when it is guided not only by intellect, but also by curiosity, humility and a profound sense of wonder.

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Favourite quotes

• Play is the highest form of research.
• Truth is what stands the test of experience.
• Any fool can know. The point is to understand.
• The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.
• Everything should be as simple as possible but no simpler.
• I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
• The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
• I want to know all Gods thoughts; all the rest are just details.
• The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.
• Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
• Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
• The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.
• It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.
• Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
• Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
• If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.
• I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.
• Two things are infinite, as far as we know – the universe and human stupidity.
• The process of scientific discovery is, in effect, a continual flight from wonder.
• We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
• Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.
• A great thought begins by seeing something differently, with a shift of the mind’s eye.
• We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.
• No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew.
• The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.
• If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
• There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
• Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.
• The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
• The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out can.
• A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove

People who inspire me: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt

Watching Ken Burns' documentary The Roosevelts gave me a completely new appreciation for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I came away deeply impressed not only by what they accomplished, but by the strength of character they displayed through extraordinary adversity. Franklin's determination after being paralysed by polio was remarkable. Rather than allowing it to define him, he developed an inner resilience that helped him lead the United States through both the Great Depression and the Second World War. His optimism, calmness and ability to inspire confidence during times of immense uncertainty made him one of the most consequential leaders of the twentieth century.

I was equally inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt. She was far more than a First Lady; she became one of the great advocates for human rights and social justice. Despite her own difficult upbringing and personal struggles, she dedicated her life to serving others and giving a voice to those who had been overlooked. What impressed me most about the Roosevelts was the way they complemented one another. Franklin provided visionary leadership at moments of national crisis, while Eleanor expanded the nation's moral vision through compassion and courage. Together they showed how resilience, purpose and service can leave a lasting impact on the world.

My favourite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes

• Do one thing every day that scares you.
• The purpose of life afterall is to live it.
• Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
• Nothing we learn in this world is ever wasted.
• You must do the things you think you cannot do.
• Life has got to be lived – that’s all there is to it.
• It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
• No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
• To leave the world richer—that is the ultimate success.
• Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be.
• I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.
• If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.
• A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.
• A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.
• People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.
• Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.
• Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
• The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
• Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.
• One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. When you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.
• You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’
• Eleanor Roosevelt quotes on Wisdom Trove

Favourite artists: Rembrandt

I've had a soft spot for Rembrandt ever since visiting the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 1997. The highlight was seeing The Night Watch in person. I'd seen photos of it before, but the scale and detail of the original are something else entirely. It's one of those artworks that's worth travelling to see.

What I admire most about Rembrandt is his ability to capture real people. His portraits feel honest and deeply human, and his mastery of light and shadow gives them incredible depth without ever feeling overdone. More than 350 years after his death, his paintings still have the power to stop people in their tracks. That's the mark of a truly great artist.

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Favourite quotes

• Without atmosphere a painting is nothing. Rembrandt
• Life etches itself onto our faces as we grow older, showing our violence, excesses or kindnesses. Rembrandt
• A painting is finished when the artist says it is finished. Rembrandt
• Choose only one master - Nature. Rembrandt
• Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God. Rembrandt
• A painting is complete when it has the shadows of a god. Rembrandt

Favourite artists: Salvadore Dali

One of the artists I find most fascinating is Salvador Dalí. At first glance his paintings seem bizarre, almost dreamlike, but the longer I look at them the more they invite reflection. They challenge my assumptions about reality, time and identity, and remind me that the world we experience is not always as fixed or straightforward as it appears. His work rewards curiosity, revealing new details and meanings each time I return to it.

What I admire most is Dalí's imagination and technical brilliance. However strange his visions were, he painted them with extraordinary precision, making the impossible feel almost believable. His art encourages me to think beyond the obvious and to appreciate the power of symbolism and metaphor. In many ways, his paintings feel less like images to be understood and more like invitations to explore the deeper landscape of the mind.

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Favourite quotes

• I don’t need drugs. I am drugs.
• God is just another artist, like me.
• To be interesting, one has to provoke.
• I’m going to live forever. Geniuses don’t die.
• Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
• God invented man, and man invented the metric system.
• Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.
• Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
• People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.
• There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.
• Every morning when I awake, the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dali.

• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Leonardo da Vinci

What fascinates me about Leonardo da Vinci is not just that he was a brilliant artist, but that he seemed endlessly curious about almost everything. Painting, anatomy, engineering, architecture, geology, flight - he approached each subject with the same desire to understand how the world really works. He reminds me that creativity and curiosity are inseparable, and that the most rewarding discoveries often happen at the intersection of different fields.

I also admire Leonardo's ability to combine scientific observation with artistic vision. He looked at nature with extraordinary care, believing that the closer we observe reality, the deeper our understanding becomes. His notebooks reveal someone who never stopped asking questions or seeking better ways of seeing. His life encourages me to remain curious, to keep learning, and to remember that the pursuit of understanding can be just as important as the answers themselves.

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Favourite quotes

• Art is never finished, only abandoned.
• Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
• The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
• Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.
• All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.
• A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.
• Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.
• Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness.
• Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
• My intention is to consult experience first, and then with reasoning show why such experience is bound to operate in such a way.
• Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Michelangelo

Another of the artists I admire most is Michelangelo. His work combines an extraordinary level of technical mastery with a profound understanding of the human form. Whether in sculpture, painting or architecture, he had an unmatched ability to express strength, beauty and emotion. I still remember visiting Rome in 1996 and standing beneath the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel for the first time. I was completely blown away. No photograph had prepared me for the scale, complexity and sheer brilliance of what he created.

What I find especially inspiring is the way Michelangelo seemed to see potential where others saw only raw stone. His famous idea that the sculpture already existed within the marble, and that his task was simply to reveal it, has always resonated with me. It feels like a powerful metaphor for life itself—that beneath the surface there is something waiting to be uncovered through patience, effort and vision. His work reminds me that great art is not only about skill, but about revealing something deeper that was there all along.

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Favourite quotes

• Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.
• My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.
• The great tragedy of life is not that people set their sights too high and fail to achieve their goals but that they set their sights too low and do.
• If people knew how hard I worked at my art, they would not consider me a genius.
• If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.
• Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.
• The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
• No great work of art is ever finished.
• Art is a jealous thing; it requires the whole and entire man.
• I am still learning. (at age 87)
• Only God creates. The rest of us just copy.
• Art lives on constraint and dies of freedom. 
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Monet

Claude Monet changed the way I look at the natural world. Rather than trying to paint every detail, he captured something more elusive—the quality of light, atmosphere and the feeling of a particular moment. His paintings remind me that what makes a scene beautiful is often not the objects themselves, but the way light transforms them. Looking at his work encourages me to slow down and notice those fleeting moments that are so easily overlooked.

What I especially appreciate is Monet's ability to find endless inspiration in familiar places. He returned to the same subjects again and again—the haystacks, the water lilies, Rouen Cathedral—not because they were unchanged, but because the light was never the same twice. That way of seeing has had a real influence on my photography. It reminds me that I don't need to travel to extraordinary places to create meaningful images. There is endless inspiration in the familiar if I return often enough, pay close attention, and learn to see each scene with fresh eyes.

  

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Favourite quotes

• I want to paint the way a bird sings.
• My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.
• It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.
• Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
• For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and the air which vary continually.
• I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
• It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm.
• It seems to me, when I see nature, that I see it ready made, completely written.
• My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in a corner of nature.
• I am following Nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Picasso

Pablo Picasso fascinates me because he refused to see the world in conventional ways. He was never content simply to reproduce what the eye could already see. Instead, he explored different perspectives, broke familiar forms apart, and rebuilt them into something entirely new. His work reminds me that creativity often begins by questioning assumptions rather than accepting them.

What I admire most is Picasso's willingness to keep evolving throughout his life. He constantly experimented, took risks, and reinvented his style instead of repeating what had already made him successful. That commitment to exploration is deeply inspiring. It encourages me to stay curious, to keep learning, and to remember that growth often comes from having the courage to look at familiar things from a completely different perspective.

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Favourite quotes

• Art is a leap into the dark.
• We don’t grow older we grow riper.
• Everything you can imagine is real.
• It takes a long time to become young.
• Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.
• Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
• Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.
• Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.
• I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
• Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.
• Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.
• We are all born children- the trick is remaining one.
• Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
• It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.
• I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.
• Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
• If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.
• What I want is that my picture should evoke nothing but emotion.
• Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
• What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas.
• The important thing is to create. Nothing else matters; creation is all.
• A plagiarist steals from one person. A true artist steals from everybody.
• We now know that Art is not the truth… but rather a way of approaching the truth.
• Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
• The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
• It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
• If there were only one truth, you couldn’t paint a hundred canvases on the same theme.
• If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse… but surely you will see the wildness!
• The first half of life is learning to be an adult-the second half is learning to be a child.
• He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.
• There is only one way to see things, until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes.
• One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite different.
• I don’t know in advance what I am going to put on canvas any more than I decide beforehand what colours I am going to use.
• My mother said to me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.
• Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
• Paintings are but research and experiment. I never do a painting as a work of art. All of them are researches. I search constantly and there is a logical sequence in all this research.
• To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.

• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's paintings always leave me with a sense of warmth and joy. He had an extraordinary ability to capture the beauty of everyday life—friends talking, families gathering, children playing, people enjoying a meal or an afternoon outdoors. His work reminds me that life's most meaningful moments are often the simplest ones, and that ordinary human experiences can be deeply beautiful.

What I appreciate most is the sense of light and humanity that runs through his paintings. His subjects feel alive, relaxed and connected, never posed or distant. Looking at his work encourages me to notice those same moments in my own life and photography—the shared smile, the quiet conversation, the warmth of sunlight on people simply enjoying being together. Renoir reminds me that beauty is not only found in dramatic landscapes or extraordinary events, but also in the richness of everyday human life.

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Favourite quotes

• It’s with my brush that I make love.
• Religion is everywhere. It is in the mind, in the heart, in the love you put into what you do.
• The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself, carry you away. 
• I arrange my subject as I want it, then I go ahead and paint it, like a child.
• One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one’s capacity.
• You come to nature with all her theories, and she knocks them all flat.
• Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. To be an artist you must learn the laws of nature.
• The pain passes, but the beauty remains.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse reminds me that creativity is ultimately about vision, not technique. His work is full of colour, simplicity and joy, yet behind that apparent simplicity is a remarkable ability to communicate emotion with the fewest possible elements. He had a gift for stripping away the unnecessary and revealing the essence of a subject, showing that great art doesn't always need complexity to have a profound impact.

One of the things I find most inspiring about Matisse is what he did later in life. When illness meant he could no longer paint in the traditional way, he refused to stop creating. Instead, he began making his famous cut-outs, using painted sheets of coloured paper that he cut into bold, expressive shapes. Rather than seeing his physical limitations as the end of his artistic life, he turned them into the beginning of a completely new chapter. His example reminds me that creativity is ultimately a state of mind, and that obstacles can become opportunities if we are willing to adapt and keep creating.

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Favourite quotes

• I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.
• What I am after, above all, is expression.
• Color exists in itself, possessing its own beauty.
• Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can express our emotions.
• I’ve been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.
• Fit the parts together, one into the other, and build your figure like a carpenter builds a house. Everything must be constructed, composed of parts that make a whole.
• Much of the beauty that arises in art comes from the struggle an artist wages with his limited medium.
• The artist begins with a vision – a creative operation requiring an effort.
• We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe.
• There are always flowers for those who want to see them.
• Creation is the artist’s true function; where there is no creation there is no art.
• Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.
• To arrive is to be in prison. 
• Would not it be best to leave room to mystery?
• Do I believe in God? Yes, when I work.
• Nothing can be accomplished without love.
• Quotes on Life Trove
• Life lessons

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Favourite artists: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo's art speaks to me because it is so deeply personal and honest. She painted from her own life, transforming physical pain, emotional struggle and questions of identity into works of extraordinary power. Her paintings remind me that great art doesn't have to avoid suffering. Sometimes it is through our deepest challenges that we discover the most authentic forms of expression.

What I admire most about Kahlo is her courage. Despite living with chronic pain for much of her life, she continued to create work that was uncompromisingly original and unmistakably her own. She never tried to fit into someone else's idea of what an artist should be. Her life reminds me that creativity is not about having perfect circumstances, but about expressing truth as honestly as we can. There is something deeply inspiring about her determination to turn adversity into beauty and meaning.

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Favourite quotes

• My painting carries with it the message of pain.
• Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?
• I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.
• At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.
• I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.
• I have suffered two grave accidents in my life, one in which a streetcar knocked me down… The other accident is Diego.
• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite artists: Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh's paintings have always had a special place in my heart. There is an intensity and emotional honesty in his work that is unlike anyone else's. His use of colour, texture and movement gives his paintings a remarkable sense of life, making landscapes, skies and everyday scenes feel almost alive. I vividly remember visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1997 after having a joint. Standing in front of his original paintings, I was completely blown away. Seeing the thickness of the paint and the energy of every brushstroke was an experience I'll never forget.

What I admire most about Van Gogh is his ability to find beauty and meaning in ordinary subjects. Whether he was painting a field of wheat, a chair, a pair of old boots or a night sky, he brought an extraordinary depth of feeling to his work. His paintings remind me that art is not simply about recording what we see, but about revealing how we experience the world. They continue to inspire me to look more carefully, feel more deeply, and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us every day.

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Favourite quotes

• What is done in love is done well.
• We are surrounded by poetry on all sides.
• I would rather die of passion than of boredom.
• Art is to console those who are broken by life.
• The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.
• One must work and dare if one really wants to live.
• If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
• Admire as much as you can. Most people do not admire enough.
• What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
• Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.
• I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.
• I work as diligently on my canvases as the laborers do in their fields.
• I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.
• To suffer without complaint is the only lesson we have to learn in this life.
• I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.
• Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.
• …and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?
• It is looking at things for a long time that ripens you and gives you a deeper meaning.
• Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
• Seek only light and freedom and do not immerse yourself too deeply in the worldly mire.
• I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say ‘he feels deeply, he feels tenderly’.
• The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.
• If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.
• To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one’s fling from time to time, smoke one’s pipe, and drink one’s coffee in peace.
• In spite of everything, I shall rise again; I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.
• If you work with love and intelligence, you develop a kind of armour against people’s opinions, just because of the sincerity of your love for nature and art.
• It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.
• It must be good to die in the knowledge that one has done some truthful work…and to know that, as a result, one will live on in the memory of at least a few and leave a good example for those who come after.
• If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.

• Quotes on Wisdom Trove
• Life lessons

Favourite directors: Christopher Nolan

I’ve just come home from seeing The Odyssey, and once again I was reminded why Christopher Nolan is my favourite filmmaker working today. Every time I walk out of one of his films, I feel like I've experienced something rather than simply watched it. His movies linger. They invite reflection. They make me want to see them again—not just to catch what I missed, but because they continue unfolding long after the credits roll.

Part of his genius lies in the remarkable creative team he has built around him. He has worked alongside his wife and producer, Emma Thomas, since the very beginning, and his brother Jonathan has been instrumental in shaping many of his greatest stories. More recently, editor Jennifer Lame has brought extraordinary rhythm and emotional precision to his films. It's a reminder that while Nolan is a visionary, great art is often born from enduring creative partnerships.

Then there are the stories themselves. Nobody constructs a narrative quite like Nolan. The Prestige remains, in my view, one of the greatest screenplays ever written, with not one but two breathtaking twists that completely transform everything that came before. Memento turned storytelling inside out, allowing us to experience memory loss rather than simply observe it. Interstellar somehow combines hard science, breathtaking spectacle and one of the most moving father-daughter stories ever put on screen. And the ending of Inception—that spinning top—may be the perfect ending because it leaves us wrestling with a deeper question than whether Cobb is dreaming: what is reality, and does our experience of it ultimately matter more than certainty?

But what elevates Nolan above almost every other blockbuster director is that he's never really making films about explosions, spies, superheroes or space travel. Those are simply the vehicles. Beneath them lie profound existential questions. What is time? What is identity? How much of who we are is memory? Can love transcend space and time? What is sacrifice? How should we live when faced with uncertainty? He trusts his audience to engage with these questions rather than reducing them to simple answers.

Perhaps that's why his films resonate with me so deeply. They embody what I believe great art should do. Great art doesn't merely entertain—it expands consciousness. It stretches the imagination, deepens our perception, and leaves us seeing ourselves and reality a little differently than before.

After The Odyssey, I'm more convinced than ever that Christopher Nolan isn't just one of the great filmmakers of our time. He's one of the great storytellers. And in a culture that often underestimates the power of story, that's a rare and precious gift.

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Movies I've seen

Favourite directors: Clint Eastwood

I’ve always admired Clint Eastwood, not only as an actor but even more as a director. He has an understated, no-nonsense style that never feels like it is trying too hard, whether he is in front of or behind the camera. As an actor, his quiet intensity and screen presence made him one of the great movie icons, but as a director he has shown remarkable range and sensitivity. Unforgiven is probably my favourite of his films—a brilliant, morally complex deconstruction of the Western—and I absolutely love Mystic River, which is dark, powerful and superbly acted. What I admire most about Eastwood is his ability to tell serious, emotionally complicated stories with such simplicity and restraint.

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Favourite directors: John Carney

I’ve loved John Carney’s films ever since Once, which really touched me with its simple story and wonderful music. I love music and am fascinated by the creative process—how songs are written, developed, rehearsed and finally brought to life. His films capture that process extremely well and make you feel part of it. Music is never just in the background; it is central to the characters and their relationships. Whether it is Once, Begin Again, Sing Street or Flora and Son, his films show how making music can bring people together and change the direction of their lives.

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Movies watched

Favourite directors: Denis Villeneauve

I love Denis Villeneuve because science fiction is my favourite genre, and few directors make it feel so intelligent, beautiful and emotionally powerful. Arrival was genuinely transcendent, while Blade Runner 2049 and the Dune films were all incredible achievements in atmosphere, scale and storytelling. His films are visually stunning without ever feeling empty, and they explore big ideas about time, identity, consciousness and humanity. Whenever Villeneuve releases a new movie, I feel confident it will be brilliant.

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Movies watched

Favourite directors: Francis Ford Coppola

love Francis Ford Coppola because his films combine huge cinematic ambition with deep human feeling. The Godfather films are among the greatest studies of family, power, loyalty and moral corruption ever made, while Apocalypse Now is overwhelming in its scale, atmosphere and psychological intensity. I also admire that he could make something as restrained and unsettling as The Conversation, then move into the gothic extravagance of Bram Stoker’s Dracula or the warmth and nostalgia of Peggy Sue Got Married. His films are visually rich, emotionally serious and often operatic, but they are always grounded in people struggling with love, identity, conscience and the consequences of their choices.

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Movies seen