I only painted when I felt like it and needed money. But it never really became a professional thing, even though the dealers would have liked that.

One is a criminal to some people and an artist to others. I can understand that. In a legal sense, I am a convicted criminal.

No one ever ordered anything from me. I painted because I wanted to.

Every philharmonic orchestra merely interprets the composer. My goal was to create new music by that composer. In doing so, I wanted to find the painter's creative center and become familiar with it, so that I could see through his eyes how his paintings came about and, of course, see the new picture I was painting through his eyes - before I even painted it.

I went to the flea market in the morning and charged tourists money to take pictures of me. I looked pretty wild, with hair down to my waist, Indian robes, a floor-length fur coat. There must be lots of photos of me out there.

The trick is to paint a picture that doesn't exist, and yet that fits perfectly into an artist's body of work.

I once went to a demonstration in Aachen against fare increases on public transport. A police officer pulled out a bunch of my hair, and there were a lot of violent beatings. That's when I thought to myself: You'd better leave it alone.