And painted portraits have a life of their own that comes from deep in the soul of the painter and where the machine can't go.

If I did not succeed I still thought that what I had worked on would be continued. Not immediately. But there are others who believe in things that are true.

I am an artist... It's self-evident that what that word implies is looking for something all the time without ever finding it in full. It is the opposite of saying, 'I know all about it. I've already found it.' As far as I'm concerned, the word means, 'I am looking. I am hunting for it. I am deeply involved.'

Exaggerate the essential, leave the obvious vague.

Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it, and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way.

What a simple thing death is, just as simple as the falling of an autumn leaf.

I think that I still have it in my heart someday to paint a bookshop with the front yellow and pink in the evening...like a light in the midst of the darkness.