“Here, on the river’s verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left.”

I must be more sensible and realize that at my age, illusions are hardly permitted and they will always destroy me.

The painter must enclose himself within his work; he must respond not with words, but with paintings.

Doubtless there are things in nature which have not yet been seen. If an artist discovers them, he opens the way for his successors.

The world doesn’t understand me and I don’t understand the world, that’s why I’ve withdrawn from it.

My nervous system is enfeebled, only work in oils can sustain me.

The landscape thinks itself in me and I am its consciousness.

For an Impressionist to paint from nature is not to paint the subject, but to realize sensations.

Monet is only an eye, but my God, what an eye!

There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind; each of them should aid the other.

The awareness of our own strength makes us modest.

Painting is founded on the heart controlled by the head.

The sun penetrates me soundlessly like a distant friend that stirs up my laziness, fertilizes it. We bring forth life.

It is not about painting life, it is about making the painting alive.

The most seductive thing about art is the personality of the artist himself.

When I start thinking, all is lost.

Nature is the best instructor.