Listen! There was never an artistic period. There was never an art-loving nation.

The vast majority of English folk cannot and will not consider a picture as a picture, apart from any story which it may be supposed to tell.

Industry in art is a necessity - not a virtue - and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work.

I remember that at one time I always made a drawing before going to bed!! - Of myself I mean - though I finally destroyed most of them.

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.

You shouldn't say it is not good. You should say, you do not like it; and then, you know, you're perfectly safe.