“My art is capable of liberating man from the tyranny of the practical, rational world.”

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.

If you understand your painting beforehand, you might as well not paint it.

The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.

So little of what could happen does happen.

There are some days when I think I’m going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.

I want to perceive and understand the hidden powers and laws of things, in order to have them in my power.

To be interesting, one has to provoke.

I’m going to live forever. Geniuses don’t die.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life

The fact I myself do not understand what my paintings mean while I am painting them does not imply that they are meaningless.

I am making things that inspire me with a profound emotion and I am trying to paint them honestly.

I am the Don Quixote of unreality.

Do not strive to be a modern artist: it’s the one thing, unfortunately, you can’t help being.

I do not take drugs. I am drugs.

Sometimes I spit on my mother’s portrait for pleasure.

The species and the genus are always the work of nature [i.e. specially created]; the variety mostly that of circumstance; the class and the order are the work of nature and art.

It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts.

My goal is to be one with the music. I just dedicate my whole life to this art.

Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.

I just love music. I think it’s art.

The trout in yonder wimpling burn – That glides, a silver dart, – And, safe beneath the shady thorn, – Defies the anglers art.

A work of art is not a matter of thinking beautiful thoughts or experiencing tender emotions , but of intelligence, skill, taste, proportion, knowledge, discipline and industry; especially discipline.

only an aching heart Conceives a changeless work of art.