Why do you try to understand art? Do you try to understand the song of a bird?

I paint the way someone bites his fingernails; for me, painting is a bad habit because I don't know nor can I do anything else.

I hate it when people pilfer my things.

If you are a genius and unsuccessful, everybody treats you as if you were a genius, but when you come to be successful, when you commence to earn money, when you are really successful, then your family and everybody no longer treats you like a genius, they treat you like a man who has become successful.

The purpose of Art is to create enthusiasm.

Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.

It is my misfortune - and probably my delight - to use things as my passions tell me. What a miserable fate for a painter who adores blondes to have to stop himself putting them into a picture because they don't go with the basket of fruit! . . . I put all the things I like into my pictures. The things - so much the worse for them. They just have to put up with it.