He made his colours, built his stretchers, plastered his canvas, painted his pictures, carpentered his frames, and painted them. 'Too bad I can't buy my own pictures,' he murmured aloud. 'Then I'd be completely self-sufficient.'

What we know of others is our personal secret.

Reading has always been the largest and most irreplaceable pleasure for Vincent; reading about other people's successes and failures, joys and sufferings seemed to bury his own failures.

You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry. [Vincent Van Gogh]

Pleasure is one of the most important things in life, as important as food or drink.

An artist without ideas is a mendicant; barren, he goes begging among the hours.

The writer ... an athlete required to break the four-minute mile every morning.