Colors live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied to the canvas.

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

By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. This was the origin of the paintings in The Frieze of Life.

My breakthrough came very late in life, really only starting when I was 50...I had the strength for new deeds and ideas.

For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.

When I paint a person, his enemies always find the portrait a good likeness.

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.