The thing has already taken form in my mind before I start it. The first attempts are absolutely unbearable. I say this because I want you to know that if you see something worthwhile in what I am doing, it is not by accident but because of real direction and purpose.

I assure you that there's a lot involved in compositions with figures. ... It's like weaving... you must control and keep an eye on several things at once.

I always dream a painting like that, with a group of lively figures of the pals.

And love makes one calmer about many things, and in that way, one is more fit for one's work.

Rembrandt is so deeply mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language.

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle.

I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone.