The most successful of living artists Jeff Koons has been a focus of creative fascination and significance for more than thirty years, but has always remained guarded about his intellectual life, influences and motivation. The distinguished curator and long-time Koons friend and collaborator Sir Norman Rosenthal has, for the first time, removed that guard. This important book provides the most revealing portrait yet of Jeff Koons' singular personality and artistic vision. Rosenthal's masterful interviews, conducted over four years, give unparalleled access to Koons' thoughts, disclosing the artist undistorted and in his own words. As well as examining all his major series in depth, from his first inflatables to his latest series on antiquities, the interviews shed new light on the artist's interest in other artists' works, reveal the significance of his youth and family life on his art, and explain the key concepts of his practice, such as his ideas on self- acceptance, banality, ecstasy and sex.