Bleed me of art, and there won't be enough liquid left in me to spit! [Michelangelo Buonorotti]

I cannot draw a human figure if I don't know the order of his bones, muscles or tendons. Same is that I cannot draw a human face if I don't know what's going on his mind and heart. In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and think about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist.

I spend several years trying to get inside the brain and heart of my subjects, listening to the interior monologues in their letters, and when I have to bridge the chasms between the factual evidence, I try to make an intuitive leap through the eyes and motivation of the person I'm writing about.

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

If it is noticed that much of my outside work concerns itelf with libraries, there is an extremely good reason for this. I think that the better part of my education, almost as important as that secured in the schools and the universities, came from libraries.

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

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