“Today everything must be easy and it mustn't take time ... ready meals. Powdered hot chocolate and instant coffee ... Living takes time. We need to give each other time.”

“It's hard, to live in the present. Right this minute. We spend most of our time in the past. Or in the future…about half in each. But to live in the present! Hardly anybody can do it.”

“Now while it's hanging in the gallery I pine for it. But once it's on my own wall, perhaps it will be different -- once it's here all the time, every time I lift my eyes ... when I come into the living room in the morning and in the evening ... Will it make me happy? Yes, a voice inside him said, it will make you happy.”

“Take away security to leave room for experience.”

“We're not really afraid to die. We're only afraid of being forgotten. We know that we'll be forgotten, and the idea is unbearable, don't you agree? As time passes we become infrequent visitors in the minds of those left behind. The ones who clear out the house & divide up the belongings. Throw away the rubbish. And forget. If we knew that every evening someone lit a candle and sat down to think – thought about is if only for a few seconds – then we could depart this earth in peace. No-one will light a candle for me. Who would do that?”

“If we don't believe in the Devil, we won't be able to recognize him when he suddenly shows up.”

“While I am absorbed by fiction, I pull the strings like a puppeteer; I make things happen. It's a passion and a lifelong obsession.”