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As far as the style, I was fascinated by surrealism.

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

It's very hard to say I'm surrealist. It's like saying I'm poetic. It's not something you want necessarily to be aware of.

Surrealism - in particular with Salvador Dali - was all about ego. It was all about extreme individualism.

Really, I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.

I was influenced by surrealist poetry and painting as were thousands of other people, and it seems to me to have become a part of the way I write, but it's not.

To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.

For me, surrealism is in my blood; it's not an effort.

But surrealism is present in most of my pictures.

Surrealism was necessary - essential, even - in the 1920s to bridge the gap between rationalism and the subconscious. It started something important. But by the early '60s, it had become petit-bourgeois; it was too intellectual and romantic, and had ground to a halt. It had become respectable.