A student of James McNeill Whistler tells the great artist, 'I tend to paint what I see.' Whistler replies, 'Ah! The shock will come when you see what you paint!

The world is divided into two classes - invalids and nurses.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.

As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of color.

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.

I always ask at once, 'Do you drink?' and if she says 'No,' I bow politely and say I am sorry but I fear she will not suit. All good cooks drink.

I can't tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring.

For art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure.

Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.

I was his exception, and as much as I had tried to fight my feelings, he was mine.

There is wisdom out there that can’t be relayed in musings or sage advice. Like the complexity of life itself, it simply won’t condense. It can only be shown in its entirety. It takes a story.

I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails under which laborers can strike when they want to.

In vain sedate reflections we would make When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

A figure skater is not just a figure skater who does great jumps. He is an artist on ice.

If your expectations aren't to be the best, then... you know, nobody rises to low expectations.

The scaffolding must be removed once the house is built.

I went to a performance of 'The Crucible' at the Guthrie when I was a sophomore in high school, and I knew right away that that's what I wanted to do

God intends no man to live in this world without working, but it seems to me no less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work.

Power, true power, comes from within. Not without. (Nick)