The artist does not draw what he sees, but what he must make others see. Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things. A picture is first of all a product of the imagination of the artist; it must never be a copy. If then two or three natural accents can be added, obviously no harm is done. The air we see in the paintings of the old masters is never the air we breathe.

We were created to look at one another, weren't we?

I really have a lot of stuff in my head; if only there were insurance companies for that as there are for so many things.

It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.

There is a kind of success that is indistinguishable from panic.

It is people's movement that consoles us. If the leaves of a tree did not move, how sad would be the tree - and so should we.

Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.