I got serious about painting at 12, when most people give up.

If you find yourself worrying, go outside, take three breaths, address a tree and quietly say, 'Thank you.' If you can't find a tree, a dandelion will do... Nature is magic.

I never thought that I would support myself with art - everyone in the Group of Seven had day jobs. I became a geography teacher so that I could get free field trips into the wilderness to paint.

To me the most important thing in a piece of art is the thought. Technique is totally secondary.

I've never thought sitting around worrying helps anything, except to help shorten your life.

It doesn't take more skill to paint hundreds of strokes rather than one right stroke but it takes more patience.

If I ever have a conflict between art and nature, I let art win.

The most important question facing the planet is: Is it worth it?

Nature is not a free lunch, but we treat it as a free lunch.

In our instant pudding world, everything is sweet, smooth, very convenient and fast. There are lots of assorted flavors, but they're all artificial.

Aesthetic pleasure is not to be taken lightly; it's very important for the spirit and therefore the health.

Over preparation paralyzes ideas

Our audacity must be rooted in our humility.

Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lustLike diamonds, we are cut with our own dust

But when you make love, the dead stay close, fill the bed, lie along the bodies in tiers, sandwiching all their lives with yours.

Allie sighed. It was an old yellow sound, like turning pages.

One of the things that happens in the business is that success is a very strange thing in that if you are involved in something very successful the next person wants you to repeat it.

If anything were FULLY explained, everything would be explained.

I want to be alone. I need to touch each stone, face the grave that I have grown. I want to be alone.

Lions would have fared better, had lions been the artists.

Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you.