The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.

The object, which is back of every true work of art, is the attainment of a state of being, a state of high functioning, a more than ordinary moment of existence. In such moments activity is inevitable, and whether this activity is with brush, pen, chisel, or tongue, its result is but a by-product of the state, a trace, the footprint of the state.

When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.

The most vital things in the look of a landscape endure only for a moment. Work should be done from memory; memory of that vital moment.

Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.

It is the common defect of modern art study. Too many students do not know why they draw.

The picture that looks as if it were done without an effort may have been a perfect battlefield in its making.