The splitting up of color [as Impressionists did] brought the splitting up of form and contour . . . Everything is reduced to a mere sensation of the retina, but one which destroys all tranquility of surface and contour. Objects are differentiated only by the luminosity that is given them.

Art is an escape from reality.

The artists must see all things as if he were seeing them for the first time. All his life he must see as he did when he was a child.

I cannot copy nature in a servile way; I am forced to interpret nature and submit it to the spirit of the picture. From the relationship I have found in all the tones there must result a living harmony of colors, a harmony analogous to that of a musical composition.

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.

I simply try to put down colors which render my sensation

A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light.