Don't wish for "secrets" of the masters, either. There are none worth fooling with. They had no special mediums or paints, nor special brushes that made their work great.

Talent, don't bother about wether or not you have it. Just assume that you do, and forget about it. Talent is a word we use after someone has become accomplished.

It often takes two to do a good painting - one to paint it, and another to rap the painter smartly with a hammer before he or she can ruin it.

I honestly believe students of painting in the next century will laugh at the abstract art movement. They will marvel at such a drawn-out regression in the plastic arts.

If there is a conflict in your mind between what you know and what you are seeing, paint what you see because if you don't, the result will look like something that isn't there.

Make your art a gift of inspiration to others to work toward better things.

When we are bursting with some wordless experience, Art is our voice, the song of the heart.

What sets you apart from the rest of humanity is your ability to give visual form to an idea - the skill to transform it into something more than merely the insight or perception alone.

All great art originates from the innocent child within us expressing itself through the wisdom, experience and skill of an adult.

The strength and clarity of the picture you envision at the start will tell you when you are done. You are finished when you have said what you wish to say, when nothing added can make it better.

My idealism is clearly one reason I'm an artist. I see art as one of mankind's more sublime acts, as a vital counterbalance to our base impulses .

We are born to serve, to find the power of love, and to get what we deserve.

Be self-indulgent, and those who are also self-indulgent will like you. Tear your neighbor to pieces, and the other neighbors will laugh. But if you beat your soul, all souls will cry out.

A straight face is an ignorant man’s attempt to appear knowledgeable.

I first got into acting when I was about 12. I started doing speech and drama lessons. All my friends were doing it at the time and my dad encouraged it. He encouraged any extracurricular activity.

One day we wake up and we are broken. We taste it in our morning kiss. Our mirror tells us the same stories in separate hours: things will never be the same.

Before my first novel, I was dating a woman who later went to prison for bashing a guy with a hammer.

Almost every aspect of its (Federal Reserve) history should be approached with a discriminating disregard for what is commonly taught or believed.

The important thing is that all stages from adolescent to mature man, work is done to spread the sporting spirit.

I don't think the space station will ever do anything for exploration. Putting people up there for a year or more is the only way you will get anywhere near the exploration concept

Allah is al-Kareem, so if He withholds from you it is not on account of stinginess. It is on account of His generosity. He withholds to give.