In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.

I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it.

Time extracts various values from a painter’s work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

A young woman has young claws, well sharpened. If she has character, that is. And if she hasn’t so much the worse for you.

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

Creativity takes courage.

An artist must never be a prisoner. Prisoner? An artist should never be a prisoner of himself, prisoner of style, prisoner of reputation, prisoner of success, etc.

I’m growing old, I delight in the past.

Jazz is rhythm and meaning.

Cutting into color reminds me of the sculptor’s direct carving.

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color – not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.

Exactitude is not truth.

A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I’ve been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light.

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

In love, the one who runs away is the winner.

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

I don’t know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I’m some sort of Buddhist. But the essential thing is to put oneself in a frame of mind which is close to that of prayer.

Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.

An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.

In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking on a tightrope.

Work cures everything.

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter – a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.

I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day’s work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.

I wouldn’t mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.

My curves are not crazy.

With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.