Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness.

Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.

It was always my intention that The Frieze should be housed in a room which would provide a suitable architectural frame for it.

There is a battle that goes on between men and women. Many people call it love.

To die is as if one's eyes had been put out and one cannot see anything any more. Perhaps it is like being shut in a cellar. One is abandoned by all. They have slammed the door and are gone. One does not see anything and notices only the damp smell of putrefaction.

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

I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous infinite scream of nature.