Damien Hirst the most celebrated artist Britain has produced for generations. The undisputed leader and originator of the dominant movement in contemporary art on both sides of the Atlantic, he is now so ingrained in the public consciousness that even people with only a passing interest in art are familiar with his notorious shark and pickled sheep. In the tradition of the classic book-length interviews by David Sylvester with Francis Bacon and Jan Wenner with John Lennon, the conversations in On the Way to Work are electrifyingly candid. There is no off-limits. Here are Hirst’s thoughts on celebrity, money, art, alcohol, sex, death, the North of England, class, crime and cocaine; his views of Charles Saatchi, David Bowie, David Hockney, Jarvis Cocker, Gilbert and George and Lucian Freud.