There is a continual exchange of ideas between all minds of a generation. Journalists, popular novelists, illustrators, and cartoonists adapt the truths discovered by the powerful intellects for the multitude. It is like a spiritual flood, like a gush that pours into multiple cascades until it forms the great moving sheet of water that stands for the mentality of a period.

The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live. Be a man before being an artist!

The artist has only to trust his eyes.

Man's naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal, and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages.

An artist worthy of the name should express all the truth of nature, not only the exterior truth, but also, and above all, the inner truth.

The body always expresses the spirit whose envelope it is. And for him who can see, the nude offers the richest meaning.

Mere exactitude, of which photography and moulage [life casting] are the lowest forms, does not inspire feelings.