Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.

Without fear and disease, my life would be like a boat without oars.

Without anxiety and illness I would have been like a ship without a rudder.

The viewers must come to understand the sacredness of painting, so they will remove their hats as if they were in church.

All art, literature, and music must be born in your heart's blood. Art is your heart's blood.

My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder. My art is grounded in reflections over being different from others. My sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings

I find it difficult to imagine an afterlife, such as Christians, or at any rate many religious people, conceive it, believing that the conversations with relatives and friends interrupted here on earth will be continued in the hereafter.