I believe it is one's duty to paint the rich and magnificent aspects of nature. We need gaiety and happiness, hope and love.

...to look at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots of a map representing towns and villages. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots of the sky not be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?

To do good work one must eat well, be well housed, have one's fling from time to time, smoke one's pipe, and drink one's coffee in peace

What has changed is that my life then was less difficult and my future seemingly less gloomy, but as far as my inner self, my way of looking at things and of thinking is concerned, that has not changed. But if there has indeed been a change, then it is that I think, believe and love more seriously now what I thought, believed and loved even then.

The more you love, the more you suffer.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.