I waited for the idea to consolidate, for the grouping and composition of themes to settle themselves in my brain.

I've done what I could as a painter and that seems to me to be sufficient. I don't want to be compared to the great masters of the past, and my painting is open to criticism; that's enough.

Zaandam has enough to paint for a lifetime.

When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you - a tree, house, a field....Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you.

For me, the subject is of secondary importance: I want to convey what is alive between me and the subject.

The Thames was all gold. God it was beautiful, so fine that I began working a frenzy, following the sun and its reflections on the water.

It is better to have done something than to have been someone.