To paint is to know how to put nothing on canvas, and have it look like something when you stand back.

Art when really understood is the province of every human being. It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. It is not an outside, extra thing.

You form a society: that limits you. Adopt a name, and you've limited yourself again; draw up a constitution and bylaws and you've made a groove, a rut, that hampers your growth. You think you can fix your course and move straight along it. But sometimes the important thing is to strike out sidewise.

The real artist's work is a surprise to himself.

Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.

Do not worry about your originality. You could not get rid of it even if you wanted to.

Painting should never look as if it were done with difficulty, however difficult it may actually have been.