The painter must give a completely free rein to any feeling or sensations he may have and reject nothing to which he is naturally drawn.

As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does

I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them.

Sometimes, when I've been staring too hard, I've noticed that I could see the circumference of my own eye.

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

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.