I was always a sci-fi and fantasy geek. I was in the 'Lord of the Rings' club and all my cool friends made fun of me.

When you're 14 anything with a sword and a dragon is pretty cool. But when you're 21 and you've read 2 000 fantasy novels you start to realize that some of those books well they weren't really good. OK let's be honest. A lot of them were crap.

I think sex is very interesting for most people but I'm interested in sex as a way of communication I'm not that interested in the fantasy version of a sex scene.

My imagination completely controls me and forever feeds the fire that burns with dark red light in my heart by bringing me the best dreams. I've always had a wild imagination a big heart and a tortured soul so I feel that dark fantasy love and horror are in my blood.

All of Koons's best art - the encased vacuum cleaners the stainless-steel Rabbit (the late-twentieth century's signature work of Simulationist sculpture) the amazing gleaming Balloon Dog and the cast-iron re-creation of a Civil War mortar exhibited last month at the Armory - has simultaneously flaunted extreme realism idealism and fantasy.

I was passionate. I found something that I loved. I could be all alone in a big old skating rink and nobody could get near me and I didn't have to talk to anybody because of my shyness. It was great. I was in my fantasy world.

We all get stuck. We all lose ourselves a little bit in a fantasy or in our jobs and forget how we feel about other things. It's really important to check yourself to spend some time alone.