If people knew what Matisse, supposedly the painter of happiness, had gone through, the anguish and tragedy he had to overcome to manage to capture that light which has never left him, if people knew all that, they would also realize that this happiness, this light, this dispassionate wisdom which seems to be mine, are sometimes well-deserved, given the severity of my trials.

Drawing is putting a line around an idea.

Nothing can be accomplished without love.

All art worthy of the name is religious.

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

A certain blue enters your soul