Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.

We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it.

You can't run a without taking risks.

It's insane how many Roman coins are being found! It's as if all Romans had holes in their pockets. They sowed coins wherever they went. Even in the fields. Maybe to grow money . . .

You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.

For those who know how to read, I have painted my autobiography

Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.