I decided to start anew, to strip away what I had been taught.

It was in the 1920s, when nobody had time to reflect, that I saw a still-life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it.

I often lay on that bench looking up into the tree, past the trunk and up into the branches. It was particularly fine at night with the stars above the tree.

A flower touches everyone's heart.

I do not like the idea of happiness - it is too momentary - I would say that I was always busy and interested in something - interest has more meaning to me than the idea of happiness.

The abstraction is often the most definite form for the intangible thing in myself that I can clarify in paint.

There's something about black. You feel hidden away in it.