Art school isn’t essential but it’s a short cut to picking up the attitude – it’s not the world, it’s the art world, and it has a certain language and set of values and history. It’s good to know those, because then you know what you’re dealing with, even if you’re going to rebel against it. People who don’t know are just like Englishmen in France just shouting in English and hoping to be understood. Some people are just baffled by the fact that the artworld isn’t taking them seriously, but they’re not engaging with it – its value and its history. Working in a gallery as a technician or in reception are good jobs, though I always resisted having a job that was anything to do with art because I sort of thought it would dilute my art. I was making sandwiches or whatever, though I was a life model once. I never got a teaching job or a gallery job.

I’d advise people who are serious about their careers to come to London, and to meet people. Go to lots of openings if you can, and meet people and hone your personal skills. You can have all the technique and all the originality in the world, but if you’re not much fun to be around then nobody’s going to want to work with you. All these ideas of bohemian chaos – I haven’t got time for it myself. I work in mess but I deliver on time and I’m civil.

As an artist you have to have shows without a dealer, do your own shows, apply for residencies, be in group shows, or apply for competitions - you accumulate visibility in the artworld, and if your work is of a proper quality you will be approached. There are an awful lot of galleries out there and they all need to put on ten or so shows a year.

Don’t overprice your work – a lot of students get very cocky, they think they’re the next Damien Hirst. If you put a massive price tag on it nothing happens and there’s only one way for the prices to go. I think it’s better to sell the work and get it out there – you don’t have to store it, it’s doing it’s work on someone’s wall, it’s an ambassador for you, the person who bought it will be an ambassador of yours – especially if you sell to a journalist, I sold several to one very early one. Then they’re extra likely to give you a good word too! A good gallery will be very sensible to what the market can stand. I’ve always erred on the lower side of what the gallery suggests, but once it goes beyond a feasible hourly rate it starts being an abstract thing about where you are in your career and what demand is as much as the piece of work.

Refresh yourself, and keeping yourself interesting – it’s important to move on and do different things and not become stale. Some artists seem to spend their entire careers with one brush stroke – I like to do all different things.

Most of being an artist is making art, and the nice fuzzy idea you have in the bath, the hard work and horrible compromises of getting work realised, happen afterwards. Stick at it – even if it blows up in the kiln! Ceramics never turn out exactly like I imagine, and you have to learn to adjust your view of the finished thing, that you’re not comparing it to your fantasy, you have to look at it with a cold eye and think ‘is it any good?’ You have to learn to trust your eye, and having a good idea is not making a good artwork – I can’t emphasise that enough.

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