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.

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.

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.

The painting rises from the brushstrokes as a poem rises from the words. The meaning comes later.

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

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.

My characters have undergone the same process of simplification as the colors. Now that they have been simplified, they appear more human and alive than if they had been represented in all their details.