Robert Filliou about POÏPOÏ:
" Paris, winter 1963. I took the metro one morning to go and visit my friend Joachim Pfeufer, no doubt to borrow the money for my rent. Joe is an architect.
He paints as well. At the time he was working mostly on his paintings. Today he gets more excited about town planning. In the metro, that cold morning, I was looking closely at all the people around me. They all looked sad, anxious, morose, lost. (I must have looked the same). I thought of myself: What to do? I would have liked to do something. But what? And what for? Who for? For all these people. What to do? And what for? I thought about my life. Is creating worth all that effort, all that discipline? When all´s said and done, I´m only a little bit better than if I hadn´t broken with the system. And even that isn´t sure. As Marianne said one day when the artistic quarrels and schemes she had so often witnessed were too much for her:" You are artists when you create. But as soon as you stop you aren´t artists any longer." It´s true, Creation is not enough. You still have to never stop creating. We can´t afford to stop. That´s it, I thought.
What I must share with everyone is the knack of Permanent Creation. Based on joy, humour, detachement, goodwill and participation..." (from Teaching and Learning as Performing Arts)