Write My Pictures

"After a swim, on the beach at Golfe-Juan, we are talking about Chinese characters (écriture). A Chinese friend is drawing Chinese characters on the sand. Picasso had amused himself before by drawing his own ideograms in the sand: bulls, goats, faces of peace. He is fascinated by the interplay of Chinese characters, the strengths and economy of their construction. ‘If I were born Chinese,’ says he, ‘I would not be a painter but a writer. I’d write my pictures.’”

From`: "L'Amour de la peinture: Goya, Picasso et autres peintres"
Claude Roy, 1956