Already at sixteen, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms: one spiritual, the other earthly.

Souls will never ascend to Heaven until the sight of beauty lifts them there.

I serve for the love of God and in Him have all my hope.

However rich I may have been, I have always lived like a poor man.

Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.

The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.

Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.