It is my duty to voice the sufferings of humankind, the never-ending sufferings heaped mountain high. This is my task, but it is not an easy one to fulfill.

If all the people who have been hurt by the war were to exclude joy from their lives, it would almost be as if they had died.

There must be understanding between the artist and the people. In the best ages of art that has always been the case. Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius — and I count myself among these — have to restore the lost connection once more.

I am in the world to change the world.

To this day I do not know whether the power which has inspired my works is something related to religion, or is indeed religion itself.

I thought I was a revolutionary and was only an evolutionary.

There are moments on most days when I feel a deep and sincere gratitude, when I sit at the open window, and there is a blue sky or moving clouds.