The painter's obsession with his subject is all that he needs to drive him to work.

A painter's tastes must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art.

The paintings live because their creator has been passionately attentive to their theme, and his attention has left something for us to look at. It seems a sort of miracle.

The process of creation becomes necessary to the painter perhaps more than is the picture. The process in fact is habit-forming

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.

Full, saturated colours have an emotional significance I want to avoid.

The 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.