The Air You Breathe In

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.

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.

Women Can Never Forgive Me; They Hate Me, They Feel That I Am Disarming Them. I Show Them Without Their Coquetry.

Truth Is Never Ugly When One Can Find In It What One Needs.

It Seems To Me That Today, If The Artist Wishes To Be Serious - To Cut Out A Little Original Niche For Himself, Or At Least Preserve His Own Innocence Of Personality - He Must Once More Sink Himself In Solitude. There Is Too Much Talk And Gossip; Pictures Are Apparently Made, Like Stock-market Prices, By Competition Of People Eager For Profit; In Order To Do Anything At All We Need (so To Speak) The Wit And Ideas Of Our Neighbors As Much As The Businessmen Need The Funds Of Others To Win On The Market. All This Traffic Sharpens Our Intelligence And Falsifies Our Judgment.