"A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light."

"There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted."

"I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me."

"Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is."

"In art, truth and reality begin when one no longer understands what one is doing or what one knows, and when there remains an energy that is all the stronger for being constrained, controlled and compressed."

"I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it."

"Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor's direct carving."

"You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover."

"I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer."

"I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish."