One can easily tell that the creator of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel was above all a sculptor

This kind of painting with its large frames is a bourgeois drawing-room art. It is an art dealer's art-and that came in after the civil wars following the French Revolution.

The viewers must come to understand the sacredness of painting, so they will remove their hats as if they were in church.

In common with Michelangelo and Rembrandt I am more interested in the line, its rise and fall, than in color

I was walking along a road one evening – on one side lay the city, and below me was the fjord. The sun went down – the clouds were stained red, as if with blood. I felt as though the whole of nature was screaming – it seemed as though I could hear a scream. I painted that picture, painting the clouds like real blood. The colours screamed.

My fear of life is necessary to me, as is my illness. Without anxiety and illness, I am a ship without a rudder. My art is grounded in reflections over being different from others. My sufferings are part of my self and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and their destruction would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings

I should have considered it wrong to have finished the Frieze before the room for its accommodation and the funds for its completion were available.