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

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.

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

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?

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.

He didn't know which he preferred: the Red, with its fatalistic and pious acceptance of all futures, or the Misery, acknowledging that the more you attracted notice, the worse God dealt with you.

I'm always looking for a way to surprise audiences. That's, I feel, my job as a director. I felt that Amy Adams playing a tough woman in 'The Fighter' was a surprise. People saw her as a princess.

One smell of brimstone makes the whole world kin.

Young sailors once stood under a square sail, gazing wonderingly across the water to where a strange shore rose about the sea - a New World.

Life is a beach, and these hoes try'na lay out

An innocent bird is not innocent from the insect's point of view! Only man can attain the rank of innocence through becoming a peaceful vegetarian!

I study history because I am interested in the future.

By punishing men of talent we confirm their authority.

It is in the intellectual and emotional response, the conscious and subconscious associations of the artist, that the potential power of painting lies.

Hate gets going, it goes round, it gets older and tighter and older and tighter, until it holds a person inside it like a fist holds a stick.