It’s easy to see there’s a dimension to her inner life which has escaped you

André Gide once chiding him, “It’s easy to see there’s a dimension to her inner life which has escaped you.”

 [...]

“A sense of style is important,” she said. “It’s like a pane of glass that makes you seem transparent but at the same time is a barrier.”

Barriers can be handy. “You should not make yourself known that much to other people and keep your most intimate thoughts to yourself,” she said. Even with a husband? “Especially with a husband,” she said, erupting into peals of laughter.

[...]

“It’s very difficult to become who you are,” she said. “People tell you to be natural. But what is natural, I would like to know?”

She resists what she calls “too much order,” too much striving for consistency. “It’s important to be a bit naïve, to be spontaneous,” she said. “Often the first thought that comes to mind is the right one.”

She underscored the point, referring to her paintings of the early 1960s, a series inspired by the myth of Theseus and Ariadne. “Maybe they are most representative of who I am now,” she said. “I see life as a labyrinth. You don’t fight it. You go where it takes you.

Or, as she added after a beat, “You go the other way.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/style/francoise-gilot-it-girl.html