“The great artist is the simplifier.”

I dream my painting and I paint my dream.

In spite of everything, I shall rise again.

I believe more and more that God must not be judged on this earth. It is one of His sketches that has turned out badly.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.

No, no thought to the winnings. One loves because one loves.

If I succeed in putting some warmth and love into the work, then it will find friends.

Purity of soul and impurity of body can go together.

Art is something greater and higher than our own skill or knowledge or learning.

I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.

Normality is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.

Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.

Doing little things well is a step toward doing big things better.

You have first to experience what you want to express.

A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.

I want to get to the point where people say of my work, that man feels deeply.

I want to be real. I want to be a real person. That’s what an artist is. An artist has to be honest. Without honesty, there’s nothing.

When I started, I was 23 years old directing my own music videos; I’m co-producing on my album; I’m hands-on with everything. I’m more than just a pretty boy: I’m an artist. I’m not saying I’m a hip-hop music artist, I’m an artiste.

Being an artist is this kind of occupation in which you have to make people care about your obsession.

An artist could have a really big relationship, and then they break up, and any song after that, people are automatically going to assume that that song is about that person.

The artist is not a man who describes, but a man who feels.

And this is what was fascinating to me about ‘The Help’; they were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.

The moment artists can just do what they love to do then music will go right back to where it used to be. I mean back in the ’60s and ’70s and ’80s, that’s what it was.

Just because I’m an artist doesn’t mean I should be treated differently.