 According to his own account, he had an unhappy childhood.He sought refuge in books, and in particular in Spinoza's Ethics and in Nietzsche's Antichrist.A school trip to London allowed him to discover the works of William Turner; later a visit to Amsterdam gave rise to his passion for the works of Rembrandt and Van Gogh as well as allowing him to meet the situationist painter and architect Constant, whose work "Het Opstand van de Homo ludens" (""The uprising of" Homo Ludens") he translated into French.