They ought to put out the eyes of painters as they do goldfinches in order that they can sing better.

Everything we can dream can be real.

What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of So-and-So or to actually imitate someone else? What's wrong with that? On the contrary, it's a good idea. You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can't! You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch... And it's at the very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself.

Action is the foundation of all success.

How could Michelangelo have seen his David in a block of marble? Man began to make images only because he discovered them nearly formed around him, already within reach. He saw them in a bone, in the bumps of a cave, in a piece of wood. One form suggested a woman to him, another a buffalo, still another the head of a monster.

The quality of a painter depends on the amount of past he carries with him.

Painting is a blind man's profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen.