You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.

For me an object is something living. This cigarette or this box of matches contains a secret life much more intense than that of certain human beings.

What I will no longer accept is the mediocre life of a modest little gentleman.

When I stand before a canvas, I never know what I'll do, and I am the first one surprised at what comes out.

You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.

I begin painting and as I paint the picture begins to assert itself, or suggest itself, under my brush. The form becomes a sign for a woman or a bird as I work... The first stage is free, unconscious... the second stage is carefully calculated.

The simplest things give me ideas.