In the beginning, it’s a direct thing. It’s the material that decides. I prepare the ground-by cleaning my brushes on the canvas, for example. Spilling a little turpentine can also work quite well. If it’s a question of drawing, I crumple the paper. I wet it. The water traces a form …. This mark determines what happens next…. It’s the medium that directs everything …. The painter works like the poet: the word comes before the thought. You don’t decide to write about the happiness of men! If you do, you’re sunk.
Make a scribble. For me, it will be a point of departure, a shock. I attach great importance to the initial shock.
– Joan Miró