I paint the way someone bites his fingernails; for me, painting is a bad habit because I don't know nor can I do anything else.

I have always believed and still believe that artists who live and work with spiritual values cannot and should not remain indifferent to the conflict in which the highest values of humanity and civilization are at stake.

Action is the foundation of all success.

When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at the egg. Likewise, starting with the egg and following the same process in reverse, one finishes with the portrait.

As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes - and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done

It is the object which aroused the artist, stimulated his ideas and set of his emotions. These ideas and emotions will be imprisoned in his work for good.

It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don't care.