As well as the current publication, this autumn, Tate Britain will display a special collection of Frank Auerbach’s paintings and drawings. In his own words, Auerbach is suspicious of too much thinking: “thinking about thinking”, he says, “isn’t true thinking…If one’s really thinking, one’s not aware of it”. Doing, for the artist, is everything.

In a conversation that spans the artist’s relentless work ethic, his thoughts on John Constable and his relationship with Lucian Freud, Auerbach offers a window into his studio and practice. Honest and uncompromising, he reveals himself as intensely self-critical, trying not to look back, forever running to keep up with what he calls painting’s “inner engine”.

Frank Auerbach: Speaking and Painting is published by Thames & Hudson.