List of Henri Matisse Quotes

There Are Wonderful Things In Jazz, The Improvisation, The Liveliness, The Being At One With The Audience.

A New Painting Is A Unique Event, A Birth, Which Enriches The Universe As It Is Grasped By The Human Mind, By Bringing A New Form Into It.

In Art, Truth And Reality Begin When One No Longer Understands What One Is Doing Or What One Knows, And When There Remains An Energy That Is All The Stronger For Being Constrained, Controlled And Compressed.

The Use Of Expressive Colors Is Felt To Be One Of The Basic Elements Of The Modern Mentality, An Historical Necessity, Beyond Choice.

Arrival = Prison, And The Artist Must Never Be A Prisoner.

Expression Is Not A Matter Of Passion Mirrored On The Human Face Or Revealed By A Violent Gesture. When I Paint A Picture, Its Every Detail Is Expressive.

Expression For Me Does Not Reside In Passions Glowing In A Human Face Or Manifested By Violent Movement. The Entire Arrangement Of My Picture Is Expressive; The Place Occupied By My Figures, The Empty Space Around Them, The Proportions, Everything Has Its Share.

Truly, I'm Not Joking When I Thank My Lucky Stars For The Awful Operation I Had, Since It Has Made Me Young Again And Philosophical Which Means That I Don't Want To Fritter Away The New Lease On Life I've Been Given.

Fit The Parts Together, One Into The Other, And Build Your Figure Like A Carpenter Builds A House. Everything Must Be Constructed, Composed Of Parts That Make A Whole.

Hatred, Rancor, And The Spirit Of Vengeance Are Useless Baggage To The Artist. His Road Is Difficult Enough For Him To Cleanse His Soul Of Everything Which Could Make It More So.

Time Extracts Various Values From A Painter's Work. When These Values Are Exhausted The Pictures Are Forgotten, And The More A Picture Has To Give, The Greater It Is.

The Living Model, The Naked Body Of A Woman, Is The Privileged Seat Of Feeling, But Also Of Questioning... The Model Must Mark You, Awaken In You An Emotion Which You Seek In Turn To Express.