All art is exorcism. I paint dreams and visions too; the dreams and visions of my time. Painting is the effort to produce order; order in yourself. There is much chaos in me, much chaos in our time.

I will either be famous or infamous.

I'm not that obsessed with making representations of ugliness. Everything I've seen is beautiful.

Stop bothering me with your pathetic politics - I'd rather go to the whorehouse.

I have to experience all the ghastly, bottomless depths for life for myself; it's for that reason that I went to war, and for that reason I volunteered.

You know, if one paints someone's portrait, one should not know him if possible.

We look wishfully to emergencies, to eventful, revolutionary times...and think how easy to have taken our part when the drum was rolling and the house was burning over our heads. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

You weren’t alone, ” he says, making sure I hear every word. “And you weren’t floating.”“How do you know?” I ask.“Because I was carrying you.

The answer to old age is to keep one's mind busy and to go on with one's life as if it were interminable. I always admired Chekhov for building a new house when he was dying of tuberculosis.

When our souls are healthy, we change the environment; the environment doesn't change us.

Scientists and scholars should constitute themselves as an international NGO of exceptional authority.

If you want to tell grown-up fairy tales, you have to look for the dark side.

They say that the Devil is a charming man. And just like you I bet he can dance.

They continued to watch each other from across the room, both frozen for a moment by the shadow of distant possibilities.

I've read about eight or ten of the original novels, and one of them is where Maigret's in bed for the entire story! His wife is running around and solving the case!

With a positive attitude, you can be anything you want to be.