The world concerns me only in so far as I have a certain debt and duty to it, because I have lived in it for thirty years and owe to it to leave behind some souvenir in the shape of drawings and paintings – not done to please any particular movement, but within which a genuine human sentiment is expressed.

What is true is that I have at times earned my own crust of bread, and at other times a friend has given it to me out of the goodness of his heart. I have lived whatever way I could, for better or for worse, taking things just as they came.

I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate.

I want to paint what I feel, and feel what I paint.

Whatever plan one makes, there is a hidden difficulty somewhere.

I would like to leave this world and never return. I severed my ear, but how I wish that I had severed my heart. I shall never amount to anything.

Man is not on the earth solely for his own happiness. He is there to realize great things for humanity.