I don’t believe in an art that is not born out of man’s need to open his heart.

I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.

In common with Michelangelo and Rembrandt I am more interested in the line, its rise and fall, than in color

Death is pitch-dark, but colors are light. To be a painter, one must work with rays of light.

Your face encompasses the beauty of the whole earth. Your lips, as red as ripening fruit, gently part as if in pain. It is the smile of a corpse. Now the hand of death touches life. The chain is forged that links the thousand families that are dead to the thousand generations to come.

Colors live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied to the canvas.

Through my art I have tried to explain my life and its meaning. I have also intended to help others to clarify their lives.