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.
Edgar DegasThe frame is the pimp of painting; it enhances it, but it must never shine at the painting's expense.
Edgar DegasOne must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must resemble an accident, not even movement.
Edgar DegasC'est vrai. Voilá quelqu'un qui sent comme moi. (It is true. There is someone who feels as I do).
Edgar DegasAnd even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.
Edgar DegasYou 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.
Edgar DegasA picture is first of all a product of the artist's imagination, it must never be a copy.
Edgar DegasDrawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.
Edgar DegasPeople call me the painter of dancing girls. It has never occurred to them that my chief interest in dancers lies in rendering movement and painting pretty clothes.
Edgar Degas