Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman, Tate Modern, London.

"Before the war I saw a painting by Picasso called The Weeping Woman," he said. "It depicted the raw grief and horror of a woman of Guernica, the Basque town bombarded by the Luftwaffe."

"I know what happened there. You don't have to describe it."

"All of the woman's features were disordered, deranged with pain, in lurid colors. Tears burst out of her eyes like white bullets...I have nightmares about that."

"You shouldn't. I don't."

He held me with his eyes. "You didn't see what I saw."