In art, one does not aim for simplicity; one achieves it unintentionally as one gets closer to the real meaning of things.

The work of art expresses precisely those things which do not die. It must do so, however, in a form that bears witness to the artist's own era.

When you see a fish you don't think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water... If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit.

What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things.

Theories are patterns without value. What counts is action.

I ground matter to find the continuous line. And when I realized I could not find it, I stopped, as if an unseen someone had slapped my hands.

What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things... it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.