I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.

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

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed.

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

Modern reality has got such a hold on us that... when we attempt to reconstruct the ancient days in our thoughts...the minor events of our lives tear us away from our meditations, and... thrust us back into our personal [problems]

I will not live without love.

Here everything is so wholly what I consider beautiful. In other words, there is peace here.