All German painters have a neurosis with Germany's past: war, the postwar period most of all, East Germany. I addressed all of this in a deep depression and under great pressure. My paintings are battles, if you will.

I started collecting my artist friends, artists like myself who nobody had yet noticed. In everything, all I am collecting, so to speak, are my friends - artist friends.

I don't see art as entertainment.

An object painted upside down is suitable for painting because it is unsuitable as an object.

What I could never escape was Germany, and being German.

I would say for everyday I build buildings or houses like a bricklayer with canvas and paint.

I dont want to create a monster; I want to make something which is new, exceptional, something that only I do...something that references tradition, but is still new.