"India's sensuous world has strong effects on me and its imprints can be seen even today in my taste and in my painting style. The strong colours, scents, materials, nature's wonderful vicinity and of course the ever present poverty. I experienced here the completeness of life in all the extreme ways. The spiritual freedom, the openness and the physical poverty."

"I often played with the local children who often ran with us barefoot and in ragged dresses. Life there is not easy but I have learned a lot from the experiences I had there. Today I know that it doesn't matter where someone comes from, what his or her colour of skin is, what language he or she speaks – what really matters is that all our feelings, aims are the same."