I was dominated, soul, brain, and power by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.

Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other.

If people were meant to be nude, they would have been born this way.

Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

A grand passion is the privelege of people who have nothing to do.