I allow no one to touch me.

The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read.

Keep good company - that is, go to the Louvre.

Time and reflection change the sight little by little 'till we come to understand.

People think how a sugar basin has no physiognomy, no soul. But it changes every day.

Art is a harmony parallel with nature.

The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself.

The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.

Genius is the ability to renew one's emotions in daily experience.

Light is a thing that cannot be reproduced, but must be represented by something else - by color.

The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.

Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones.

Anger is brief madness

[on the birth of his son after having had two daughters] I finally got it right.

I don't see how anybody starts a novel without knowing how it's going to end. I usually make detailed outlines: how many chapters it will be and so forth.

Creativity, as I see it, is the process of putting your imagination to work. It's been defined rather simply as applied imagination. That's not a bad way to think about it.

Whatever one cultivates, is what one becomes.

Don't get too attached to anything.

If you've been taught to keep every part of you to yourself, don't expect people to come knocking on your door to run their hands over the choice parts-either for your pleasure or theirs.

If one but tell a thing well, it moves on with undying voice, and over the fruitful earth and across the sea goes the bright gleam of noble deeds ever unquenchable.

The dominant culture in most big companies demands punishment for a mistake, no matter how useful, small, invisible.