Daylight is too easy. What I want is difficult - the atmosphere of lamps and moonlight.

You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.

Hitherto the nude has always been represented in poses which presuppose an audience. But my women are simple, honest creatures who are concerned with nothing beyond their physical occupations... it is as if you were looking through a keyhole.

These women of mine are decent, simple human beings who have no other concern than that of their physical condition... it is as though one were watching through a keyhole.

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

My art, what do you want to say about it? Do you think you can explain the merits of a picture to those who do not see them? . . . I can find the best and clearest words to explain my meaning, and I have spoken to the most intelligent people about art, and they have not understood; but among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say humph, he, ha and everything has been said.

Nothing in art should seem accidental, not even movement