Civilization is paralysis.

The flat sound of my wooden clogs on the cobblestones, deep, hollow and powerful, is the note I seek in my painting.

But I owe something to Vincent, and that is, in the consciousness of having been useful to him, the confirmation of my own original ideas about painting. And also, at difficult moments, the remembrance that one finds others unhappier than oneself.

And here in my isolation I can grow stronger. Poetry seems to come of itself, without effort, and I need only let myself dream a little while painting to suggest it.

Do not copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction.

I am a great artist and I know it, it is because I am that I have been able to endure so much suffering.

Life is merely a fraction of a second. An infinitely small amount of time to fulfill our desires, our dreams, our passions.