I believe when you bring, say, a plant into a room, everything in that room changes in relation to it. This tension - tension is the only word for it - can be painted.

Art, if it is successful in the task of questioning reality, if it is good painting and not merely a performance of dexterity, will be an affirmation of God.

Life is more important than art - quantity is only important in that the amount of activity is greater not the number of works.

The development that produces great art is a moral and not an aesthetic development.

All art is probably erotic in its ultimate character, but painting more than anything else is a purely nervous erotic activity.

The painter celebrates life where he finds it. His morality is the morality of enjoyment, of the continuous development of his own taste without shame or fear. It is a sort of heroism.

His ear heard more than what was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.

I can forgive you for leaving, but not for coming back.

Who cares who's right or wrong when the last word is a kind apology?

I'm saying that it's a big decision. Your first love is important. It's part of your story The story you'll tell yourself, the one you'll tell about yourself, for the rest of your life.

I've been in rooms where people are discussing films that have yet to come out and saying delightedly, 'Oh, I've heard it's a disaster!' The jealousy is unseemly.

I feel like I'm a better person when I'm quieter.

A newborn has more skills than does a politician. The infant babbles, burbles, cuddles, coos; the politician just babbles.

Deism is logically compatible with evolutionary theory for the simple reason that the theory says nothing about the origin of the universe or of the laws of nature.

People must learn more and more that the strength of this country is the democratic power of the trade union movement.

You say to yourself, Well, this poem isn't going to be any good, but I'll write it anyway.