As a painter I shall never signify anything of importance. I feel it Absolutely.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

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 am astonished at the high prices paid for works by painters who are dead, prices none of them could expect when they were alive. It is a kind of tulip trade, in which living painters suffer but do not profit.

I feel a certain calm. There is safety in the midst of danger. What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

Painting demands an intelligent model.

Nature always begins by resisting the artist, but he who really takes it seriously does not allow that resistance to put him off his stride; on the contrary, it is that much more of a stimulus to fight for victory.