The arts have a development which comes not only from the individual but also from a whole acquired force, the civilization which precedes us. One cannot do just anything. A talented artist cannot do whatever he pleases. If he only used his gifts, he would not exist. We are not the masters of what we produce. It is imposed on us.

I've been forty years discovering that the queen of all colors is black.

Purer colors... have in themselves, independently of the objects they serve to express, a significant action on the feelings of those who look at them.

I'm growing old, I delight in the past.

...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.

A rapid rendering of a landscape represents only one moment of its existence. I prefer, by insisting upon its essential character, to risk losing charm in order to gain greater stability.

Do remember that one line does nothing; it is only in relation to another that it creates a volume.