It is absurd to look for perfection.

I began to understand my sensations, to know what I wanted, at around the age of forty - but only vaguely.

Don't be afraid of putting on color, refine the work little by little.

I regard it as a waste of time to think only of selling: one forgets one's art and exaggerates one's value.

Cover the canvas at the first go, and then work on till you see nothing more to add ... Don't proceed according to rules and principles, but paint what you observe and feel. Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression.

But as I see it, the most corrupt art is the sentimental the art of orange blossoms which make pale women swoon.

At fifty, that is in 1880, I formulated the idea of unity, without being able to render it. At sixty, I am beginning to see the possibility of rendering it.