It is a widely accepted notion among painters that it does not matter what one paints as long as it is well painted. This is the essence of academicism.

The progression of a painter’s work…will be toward clarity; toward the elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea, and between the idea and the observer…to achieve this clarity is, inevitably, to be understood.

A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer

If our titles recall the known myths of antiquity, we have used them again because they are the eternal symbols upon which we must fall back to express basic psychological ideas.. ...(they) express something real and existing in ourselves.

If you are only moved by color relationships, you are missing the point. I am interested in expressing the big emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom.

I am here to make you think. . . . I am not here to make pretty pictures!

Silence is so accurate.