Unless a picture shocks, it is nothing.

Art is like a shipwreck; it's every man for himself.

My idea was to chose an object that wouldn't attract me, either by its beauty or by its ugliness. To find a point of indifference in my looking at it, you see

The life of an artist is like the life of a monk, a lewd monk if you like, very Rabelaisian. It is an ordination.

To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.

In my day artists wanted to be outcasts, pariahs. Now they are all integrated into society

No, the thing to do is try to make a painting that will be alive in your own lifetime.