Artist

You don't decide to paint. It's like getting hungry and going to the kitchen to eat. It's a need, not a choice.

I am as mysterious to myself as I am mysterious to others.

What would anyone want to write about me for? I'm just an old lady.

I do miss England. Well, I miss the idea of England, I think. But I haven't been back for years. I probably just miss the past.

I have always thought - and a lot of people won't agree with this - that we're incredibly driven by fear, basically. Aren't we? It's awful to be frightened. I think it's a very strong, very powerful thing, fear.

I never thought of myself as a Surrealist. I didn't think of myself as anything. I try not to. We all have these egos.

I didn't have time to be anybody's muse; I was too busy rebelling against my parents and learning to be an artist.

One is born, one lives, one dies. What death is, I don't know.

Sentimentality is a form of fatigue.

In the political confusion and the torrid heat, I convinced myself that Madrid was the world's stomach and that I had been chosen for the task of restoring this digestive organ to health.

Everyone's had an interesting life. Unless they're interested in business or something.

I suppose what I believe in is peaceful anarchy.

I hated being in a convent. It's another form of power. Manipulation. Because who can say - one God for the whole universe? I think there must be millions of gods! And they're not all of them very nice.