It is not enough for a painter to be a clever craftsman; he must love to 'caress' his canvas, too.

It took me twenty years to discover painting: twenty years looking at nature, and above all, going to the Louvre.

To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them.

Art is about emotion; if art needs to be explained it is no longer art.

One morning, one of us ran out of the black, it was the birth of Impressionism.

When I've painted a woman's bottom so that I want to touch it, then [the painting] is finished.

Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and all happiness.

Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.

One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity.

Photography freed painting from a lot of tiresome chores, starting with family portraits.

Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art.

Take my books away, and I should be desperate!

Characters must not brood too long. They must not waste time running up and down ladders in their own insides.

It's nice to see a movie where people are actually succeeding.

Because I'm a novelist, I think in terms of structure. The way I keep going is through structure. It's what inspires me and pushes me through.

If I'm too old to be Emo, how do you account for the very Emo and very old Edgar Allan Poe? Checkmate!

The Romans dominated Egypt for four hundred years, from the time of Augustus (30 BC to 395 AD).

The cat wrinkled its nose and managed to look unimpressed. "Calling cats," it confided, "tends to be a rather overrated activity. Might as well call a whirlwind.

The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression.

Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words.

Why, then the world ’s mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.