I wasn't a good student, I wasn't an athlete, and I

think that helped focus me early in my life.

-Chuck Close

Art to me is a humanitarian act and I believe that there is a responsibility that art should somehow be able to effect

mankind, to make the word a better place.

-Jeff Koons

When I paint, the sea roars. The others splash

about in the bath.-Salvador Dali

What counts most is finding new ways to get

the world down in paint on my own terms.

-Michelangelo

I think about my work every minute of the day.

-Jeff Koons

The job of the artist is always to deepen the

mystery.-Francis Bacon

The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read.

-Paul Cezanne

I always feel attacked when I'm asked about my

painting.

-Georges Baselitz

I start a picture and I finish it. I don't think about art while I work. I try to think

about life.-Jean Michel Basquiat

Will God or someone else give me the strength to breathe the breath of prayer and mourning into my paintings, the breath of

prayer for redemption and resurrection?

-Marc Chagall

I've always thought that problem solving is highly

overrated and that problem creation is far

more interesting.-Chuck Close

The habit of ignoring Nature is deeply implanted in our times.

This attitude reminds me of people who never look you in the ye; I find them disturbing

and always have to look away.

-Marc Chagall

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.

-Leonardo Di Vinci

My hands were too soft.. I had to find some special occupation, some kind of work that would

not force me to turn away from the sky and the stars, that would

allow me to discover the meaning of life.

-Marc Chagall

I paint for myself. I don’t know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have

to earn my living, and occupy myself.

-Francis Bacon

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not

art.-Paul Cezanne

My name is Marc, my emotional life is sensitive and my purse is empty,

but they say I have talent.-Marc Chagall

What counts most is finding new ways to get

the world down in paint on my own terms.

-Georges Baselitz

But perhaps my art is the art of a lunatic, I thought,

mere glittering quicksilver, a blue soul breaking in

upon my pictures.-Marc Chagall

All artists are vain, they long to be recognized and to leave

something to posterity. They want to be loved, and at the

same time they want to be free. But nobody is free.

-Francis Bacon

Inspiration is highly overrated. If you sit around and wait for the clouds to part, it's not liable to ever happen. More often than

not work is salvation.-Chuck Close

Great art is the outward expression of an inner life

in the artist.-Edward Hopper

I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my

own reality.-Frida Kahlo

A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the

latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the

limbs.-Leonardo Di Vinci

I'm always trying to create work that doesn't make viewers feel they're being spoken down to,

so that they feel open participation.

-Jeff Koons

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no

possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

-Salvador Dali

I think a painter looking at a painting sees the image, but they also see how the image was constructed.

-Chuck Close

The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I

paint whatever passes through my head without any other

consideration.-Frida Kahlo

You know the worst thing is freedom. Freedom of any kind is the worst for

creativity.-Salvador Dali

If I could say it in words there would be no reason

to paint.-Edward Hopper

People love mystery, and that is why they love my

paintings.-Salvador Dali

I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes

all through me.

-William Blake

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

-Paul Gauguin

Look at any inspired painting. It's like a gong

sounding; it puts you in a state of reverberation.

-Philip Guston

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce

nothing.-Salvador Dali

No amount of skillful invention can replace the

essential element of imagination.

-Edward Hopper

I paint self-portraits because I am so often

alone, because I am the person I know best.

-Frida Kahlo

An empty canvas is a living wonder.. far lovelier

than certain pictures.-Wassily Kandinsky

I try to be a truthful artist and I try to show a level of courage. I enjoy that. I'm a

messenger.-Jeff Koons