It is better to be nothing than a follower of other painters. The wise man has said when one follows another one is always behind.

The first things to study are form and values. For me, these are the things that are the basics of what is serious in art.

Never lose the first impression which has moved you.

Don't imitate, don't follow the others, or else you will lag behind them.

If my time has come I shall have nothing to complain of. For fifty-tree years I have been painting; so I have been able to devote myself entirely to what I loved best in the world. I had never suffered poverty; I had good parents and excellent friends; I can only thank God.

...Art itself may be defined as a single minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth, manifold and one, underlying its every aspect.

Art is nature as seen through a temperament.