Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one’s will. Virtue, good, evil are nothing but words, unless one takes them apart in order to build something with them; they do not win their true meaning until one knows how to apply them.
Many excellent cooks are spoilt by going into the arts.
How to re-light the fire the very ashes of which are scattered?
I was aware that on my skill as a painter would depend the physical and moral possession of the model...
The history of modern art is also the history of the progressive loss of art’s audience. Art has increasingly become the concern of the artist and the bafflement of the public.
Stressing output is the key to improving productivity, while looking to increase activity can result in just the opposite.
It is the eye of ignorance that assigns a fixed and unchangeable color to every object; beware of this stumbling block.
Where do we come from? What are We? Where are we going?
One’s state of mind is three-quarters of what counts, so it has to be carefully nurtured if you want to do something great and lasting.
In art there are only two types of people: revolutionaries and plagiarists.
I am entering into the truth, into nature.
Look closely at the Japanese; they draw admirably and yet in them you will see life outdoors and in the sun without shadows...
Lacking many of the essential implements, it irritated me to be reduced to impotence in the face of artistic projects to which I had passionately given myself.
If instead of a figure you put the shadow only of a person, you have found an original starting point, that strangeness of which you have calculated.
My God! How terrible these money questions are for an artist!
Oh mysterious world of all light, thou hast made a light shine within me, and I have grown in admiration of thy antique beauty, which is the immemorial youth of nature.
Follow the masters! But why should one follow them? The only reason they are masters is that they didn’t follow anybody!
There are tonalities which are noble and others which are vulgar, harmonies which are calm or consoling, and others which are exciting because of their boldness.
On an instrument you start from one tone. In painting you start from several.
Machines have come, art has fled, and I am far from thinking photography can help us.