To progress in life you must give up the things you do not like. Give up doing the things that you do not like to do. You must find the things that you do like. The things that are acceptable to your mind.

I used to meditate until I learned to stop thinking.

The worst thing you can think about when you're working is yourself.

I often paint tranquility. If you stop thinking and rest, then a little happiness comes into your mind. At perfect rest you are comfortable.

The enormous pitfall is devotion to oneself instead of to life. All works that are self-devoted are absolutely ineffective.

What I say is that we're capable of a transcendent response, and I think it makes us happy. And I do think beauty produces a transcendent response.

My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.