Pablo Picasso interview fragment

Photo by David Douglas Duncan 

- Why are you dancing?

- There's no ' why ", I dance.

- Are you a plastic artist who dances?

- Yes... or a dancer who paints, whatever you prefer.

- Since when do you dance?

- Forever.

- What do you think when you dance?

- I don't think, sorry.

- What do you feel?

- Love.

- Love?

- Yes, yes.

- But why?

- There's no ' why ' ' for love.

- Feel anything else?

- Life.

- What do you mean?

- Some, just some, do on this earth what they were created for. These live. Others survive. Who dances lives.

Is dancing an essential thing?

Is breathing essential? Did I answer your primary question?

- But there's a ' price ' ' for that choice.

- For dancing? Yes, there is.

- Is it expensive?

- Never mind.

- Did you pay this price?

- I still pay.

- You should dance for someone...

- Also, I mean, not just for someone, or for a reason. You dance because you were born to dance, just as you paint because the paintings already exist within you, you only release them; so it is with dancing, she moves inside you; if you don't release her she is capable of... I don't even know! An ant does its job without questioning, birds fly without questioning, fish swim... men, some kill, others prefer to do what they were created for: love.

- I dance, paint, love

- Do you always dance?

- Only when I love it.

- When do you love it?

- When I dance.

Photo by David Douglas Duncan