The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas are specifically addressed to man.

Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.

Every painted image of something is also about the absence of the real thing. All painting is about the presence of absence.

It is comparatively easy to achieve a certain unity in a picture by allowing one colour to dominate, or by muting all the colours. Matisse did neither. He clashed his colours together like cymbals and the effect was like a lullaby.

Everything in life, is a question of drawing a life, John, and you have to decide for yourself where to draw it. You cant draw it for others. You can try, of course, but it doesn't work. People obeying rules laid down my somebody else is not the same thing as respecting life. And if you want to respect life, you have to draw a line.

You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,” thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.

'Fahrenheit 9/11' is astounding. Not so much as a film - although it is cunning and moving - but as an event.