One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.

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

I knew that I had to find out more about van Gogh. Even though I was far too young, and felt I did not have sufficient technique to write a book about Vincent van Gogh, I knew I had to try. If I didn't I would never write anything else.

The maximum value of art is that it allows the artist to express himself.

His mind was like a soup dish, wide and shallow; it could hold a small amount of nearly anything, but the slightest jarring spilled the soup into somebody's lap

There is no thrill of mortal danger to surpass that of a lone man trying to create something that never existed before.

Everyone has their own personality, its own character, and if he respects that, everything would finally fall over for good only.