The brooding is better than the joy because even if the heart fills with happiness, it still mourns.

Art's a staple. Like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter. Those who think it is a luxury have only a fragment of a mind. Man's spirit grows hungry for art in the same way his stomach growls for food.

The paintings that laughed at him merrily from the walls were like nothing he had ever seen or dreamed of. Gone were the flat, thin surfaces. Gone was the sentimental sobriety. Gone was the brown gravy in which Europe had been bathing its pictures for centuries. Here were pictures riotously mad with the sun. With light and air and throbbing vivacity. Paintings of ballet girls backstage, done in primitive reds, greens, and blues thrown next to each other irreverantly. He looked at the signature. Degas.

Morality is similar to religion - it is a somniferous drug which blinds people from seeing the squalor of their lives.

All artists are crackpots. And it's their finest feature.

Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry.

Being mad is even pleasant. But only a madman understands that.