I would have been in mortal misery all my life for fear my wife might say, "That's a pretty little thing," after I had finished a picture.

I put it [picture "A still life of a pear" by Edouard Manet] there [on the wall, next to the picture "Jupiter and Thetis" by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres], for a pear like that would overthrow any god.

Art is vice. One does not wed it, one rapes it.

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.

What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming.

A picture is first of all a product of the artist's imagination, it must never be a copy.

Your pictures would have been finished a long time ago if I were not forced every day to do something to earn money.