“…I want to shout: "Just look! Look at the mystery! It is piercing your eyes." And no one sees it. Nobody but myself. People see colours, shadows, lights, forms. They see (what do I know?) the canvas, the stretcher nails. And I don't understand they can't guess all the distress here, under their eyes, as it was during the war: the clamour, death, love, treachery; the lies and the fear. And still more that I cannot say, but I know how to do it. Yes I say: I know how to do it.”

 

Guy de Montlaur (Petits écrits de nuit, 28 septembre 1961)