I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
Lucian FreudThe character of the artist doesn't enter into the nature of the art. Eliot said that art is the escape from personality, which I think is right. We know that Velázquez embezzled money from the Spanish court and wanted power and so on, but you can't see this in his art.
Lucian FreudThe painter makes real to others his innermost feelings about all that he cares for. A secret becomes known to everyone who views the picture through the intensity with which it is felt.
Lucian FreudA painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure.
Lucian Freud