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.

I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money.

Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?

One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite - that particular peach is but a detail.

I hate it when people pilfer my things.

I always forbade everyone to clean my studios, dust them, not only for fear they would disturb my things, but especially because I always counted on the protection of dust. It's my ally. I always let it settle where it likes. It's like a layer of protection.

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.