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.

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 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.

To gain freedom is to gain simplicity.

I believe that to do anything in this world one needs a love for risk and adventure, and above all, to be able to do without what middle-class families call "future."

For me, a painting must give off sparks. It must dazzle like the beauty of a woman or a poem.

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.