Art Is Vice. You Don't Marry It

The Artist Does Not Draw What He Sees, But What He Must Make Others See. Only When He No Longer Knows What He Is Doing Does The Painter Do Good Things. A Picture Is First Of All A Product Of The Imagination Of The Artist; It Must Never Be A Copy. If Then Two Or Three Natural Accents Can Be Added, Obviously No Harm Is Done. The Air We See In The Paintings Of The Old Masters Is Never The Air We Breathe.

Work A Great Deal At Evening Effects, Lamplight, Candlelight, Etc. The Intriguing Thing Is Not To Show The Source Of The Light But The Effect Of The Lighting.

A Painting Is Above All A Product Of The Artist's Imagination, It Must Never Be A Copy. If, At A Later Stage, He Wants To Add Two Or Three Touches From Nature, Of Course It Doesn't Spoil Anything.

A Picture Is An Artificial Work, Outside Nature. It Calls For As Much Cunning As The Commission Of A Crime.

People Call Me The Painter Of Dancing Girls. It Has Never Occurred To Them That My Chief Interest In Dancers Lies In Rendering Movement And Painting Pretty Clothes.