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.

The Barnes Foundation is the only sane place to see art in America.

One must, of course, have one's entire experience behind one and not have lost the freshness of instinct.

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.

All my efforts go into creating an art that can be understood by everyone.

Art is an escape from reality.

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.