When I start thinking, all is lost.

All my life I have worked to be able to earn my living, but I thought that one could do good painting without attracting attention to one's private life. Certainly, an artist wishes to raise himself intellectually as much as possible, but the man must remain obscure. The pleasure must be found in the work.

The artist must scorn all judgment that is not based on an intelligent observation of character. He must beware of the literary spirit which so often causes a painting to deviate from its true path - the concrete study of nature - to lose itself all too long in intangible speculations.

There is a logic of colors, and it is with this alone, and not with the logic of the brain, that the painter should conform.

We must not be content to memorize the beautiful formulas of our illustrious predecessors. Let us go out and study beautiful nature.

Art first of all is optical. That's where the material of our art is: in what our eyes think.

When the color achieves richness, the form attains its fullness also.