We [Richter and Blinky Palermo] could really just speak about painting. The main thing was about the surface of color or the proportion of color. It was impossible for me to talk to Sigmar Polke about the opacity of color. With Palermo, yes. We supported each other, we comforted each other a little bit. We thought this really could not be true that everything was supposed to be over ['painting' as an expression of art, in the 1970's]. Art had to be relevant [in the 1970's], and our art was not relevant.

pp. 96-97 - 'Doubt and belief in painting' (2003)