A collection makes its own demands. Many artists have been collectors. I think of it rather as an illness. I felt it was using up too much energy.
I'm very envious of the few artists who are any good and still do portraits.
I am isolated as an artist, not as a person.
I don't look at the work of my contemporaries very much; I tend to look at pictures by dead artists. It's much easier to get near their paintings.
I'm vulnerable to criticism. Any artist is, because you work alone in your studio and, until recently, critics were the only way you'd get any feedback.
The only way an artist can communicate with the world at large is on the level of feeling.