Cornelia Parker

I'm from a working-class background - I had free school meals all my life and then spent six years in art school. ”

My parents were always doubtful about my making a living as an artist. Even when I was up for the Turner Prize, my mum suggested I apply for a curator's job. ”

That's the problem with working and living in the same space - my studio is downstairs, so I often get distracted by domestic things. ”

Living in a warehouse is great - but after a while, you just want a garden. ”

When people listen to music, they don't worry about what it means like they do about art. Everyone's an expert on music, but with art, I always find I have to defend its existence. ”

I think I'm a feminist, hopefully by example. I just feel it's important to do as much as I can as a woman, to the best of my ability. ”

Driving a steamroller over an old trumpet or a teaspoon is no more destructive than taking a chisel to a lump of marble already torn from the landscape. But people don't see it that way because marble is considered noble. ”

I like the idea of taking three-dimensional objects and making them two-dimensional so that they look like cartoons. ”

At my degree show, someone said, 'It's nice, but it's very feminine.' I said, thank you, taking it as a compliment, but they obviously meant it as an insult. ”

Traditional conceptual art is very dry. ”