Learning the art of painting is not an easy task. It takes a great deal of intelligence, keen analysis, study and practice.

The study of art is a lifetime matter. The best any artist can do is to accumulate all the knowledge possible of art and its principles, study nature often and then practice continually.

The pleasure derived from viewing the achievements of others, coupled with a true appreciation of nature, sharpens the desire to express pictorially.

Art comes into being in that abstract interval between a thought and reality, and no one - not even the artist who created it - can remeasure the influences that caused it.

Departure from the literal aspect, rather than mechanical exactness, is the code of the true artist. However, departures are the result of studied intent rather than inability.

To be original one needs to learn the ideas of other painters in order to be different from them.

The artist should always be the student.

Believing, too, that is not enough. You cannot just believe. Your belief must have a purpose.

I knew I was being an idiot. But I figured if I kept being an idiot, if I didn't actually accept the truth, then the truth would become false.

I always try to improve, to find new ways of expressing myself, to keep looking for truth and originality.

My biggest challenge is being in a small town and not being able to meet a lot of people.

The very urge to get rid of desire is still desire, is it not?

The blessing of this music is that it is fun to do and it keeps evolving.

When one woman was asked how long she had been going to symphony concerts, she paused to calculate and replied, 'Forty-seven years - and I find I mind it less and less.

When you hear voices from your past, do not close your ears, listen to them, but don't stop, keep walking to the future.

Being a man of the theater and a hedonist, I find the idea of building coffins very romantic.

Just in the real world I think women are the ones that have all the power anyway.