Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.

There is no need to create. Genius comes only to those who know how to use their eyes and their intelligence.

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.

There is nothing ugly in art except that which is without character, that is to say, that which offers no outer or inner truth.

The sculptor represents the transition from one pose to another he indicates how insensibly the first glides into the second. In his work we still see a part of what was and we discover a part of what is to be.

The work of art is already within the block of marble. I just chop off whatever isn't needed.

To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature