Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.

Accidents, try to change them -- it's impossible. The accidental reveals man.

Variation does not mean evolution. If an artist varies his mode of expression this only means that he has changed his manner of thinking, and in changing, it might be for the better or it might be for the worse.

I go for a walk in the forest of Fontainebleau. I get 'green' indigestion. I must get rid of this sensation into a picture. Green rules it. A painter paints to unload himself of feelings and visions.

Sex and art are the same thing.

It seems strange to me that someone thought of making marble statues.

I'd like to live like a poor man -- only with lots of money.

For those who know how to read, I have painted my autobiography.

To make oneself hated is more difficult than to make oneself loved.

No, painting is not interior decoration. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy.

We have a definite but unknown quantity of experience at our disposal. As soon as the hourglass is turned, the sand will begin to run out and once it starts, it cannot stop until it's all gone.

Academic training in beauty is a sham. We have been so deceived, but so well deceived that we can scarcely get back even a shadow of the truth.

If you take my sayings and explode them in the air, they remain only sayings. But if you fit them together in their correct places, you will have the whole story.

Art is not chaste. Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Art is dangerous. If it is chaste, it is not art.

Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good.

As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes -- and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done.

Painting isn't made for the decoration of apartments; it is a weapon to be used offensively and defensively against the enemy.

Each time I undertake to paint a picture I have a sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet. It is only later that I begin to estimate more exactly the the effect of my work.

Everybody has the same energy potential. The average person wastes his in a dozen little ways. I bring mine to bear on one thing only: my paintings, and everything else is sacrificed to it...myself included.

Music and art are the guiding lights of the world.