The so-called conscientiousness of the majority of painters is only perfection applied to the art of boring.

If one considered life as a simple loan, one would perhaps be less exacting. We possess actually nothing; everything goes through us.

Everyone knows that yellow, orange, and red suggest ideas of joy and plenty. I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will.

A picture is nothing but a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the spectator.

The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.

We work not only to produce, but to give value to time.

Talent does whatever it wants to do. Genius does only what it can.

One never paints violently enough.

Seeing artistically does not happen automatically. We must constantly develop our powers of observation.

A fine suggestion, a sketch with great feeling, can be as expressive as the most finished product.

What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.

The secret to living is loving.

Sleep is the only thing I stay awake for.

When I started go-go dancing on tables for a living, I didn't want to tell my mom or my dad. I made 25 dollars a night, and I was able to make my rent, with the four girls I lived with.

We are finite and God will not call us everywhere or to support every worthy cause. And real needs are not far from us.

I like historical fiction. I fell in love with New Orleans the first time I visited it. And I wanted to place a story in New Orleans.

A Drop of the Ocean is still the Ocean.

I have the same themes over and over again. How I'm saying it keeps changing or growing.

The prices of really unhealthy food are kept artificially low, and that contributes to obesity.

If a man voluntarily allows himself to be crushed, he yields the oil of moral energy which sustains the world.

A good song can be produced in several different genres.