I paint the way some people write an autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages from my diary.

When I work I relax; doing nothing or entertaining visitors makes me tired.

If everybody is looking for it, then nobody is finding it. If we were cultured, we would not be conscious of lacking culture. We would regard it as something natural and would not make so much fuss about it. And if we knew the real value of this word we would be cultured enough not to give it so much importance.

Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?

Basically the French are all peasants.

The best calculation is the absence of calculation. Once you have attained a certain level of recognition, others generally figure that when you do something, it's for an intelligent reason. So it's really foolish to plot out your movements too carefully in advance. You're better off acting capriciously.

If all the ways I have been along were marked on a map and joined up with a line, it might represent a minotaur.