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

I want to assassinate painting.

I feel the need of attaining the maximum of intensity with the minimum of means. It is this which has led me to give my painting a character of even greater bareness.

More important than a work of art itself is what it will sow. Art can die, a painting can disappear. What counts is the seed.

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.

Little by little, I've reached the stage of using only a small number of forms and colors. It's not the first time that painting has been done with a very narrow range of colors. The frescoes of the tenth century are painted like this. For me, they are magnificent things.