There are moments on most days when I feel a deep and sincere gratitude, when I sit at the open window, and there is a blue sky or moving clouds.

Growing old is partly an inescapable process of accommodation and adjustment.

There must be understanding between the artist and the people. In the best ages of art that has always been the case. Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius — and I count myself among these — have to restore the lost connection once more.

To this day I do not know whether the power which has inspired my works is something related to religion, or is indeed religion itself.

If all the people who have been hurt by the war were to exclude joy from their lives, it would almost be as if they had died.

I have never been able to carry out any work coolly. On the contrary it is done, so to speak, with my own blood. Anyone who looks at my works must be able to sense that.

Look at life with the eyes of a child.