To be precise, I believe the most important thing here is to enter into the experience, to feel that one is the material on which all sorts of relatively independent forces are acting. What allows me to be in a certain way the sculptor of myself, or at least to cooperate with the forces that shape me? If I don’t do that, I am letting these forces operate and make whatever they wish of me. Nevertheless something in me is called on: as a human being, I am invited to take part in my own formation. And perhaps it is that which more and more strengthens my interest in self-knowledge through the experience of art – not an intellectual interest but one that is much more profound and comes from a deeper source.
– Henri Tracol, From a 1981 interview with Pierre Descargue on the program, “Le Monde au singulier.”