Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.

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.

To find is the thing.

Action is the foundational key to all success.

Nature does many things the way I do, but she hides them!

Don't waste your youth growing up.

Art is not chaste. Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Art is dangerous. If it is chaste, it is not art.