Mark Rothko

The function of the artist is to make the spectator see the world his way—not his way of seeing, but the world he sees.

I believe that the artist's function is to make the spectator see the world his way.

The great artist is one who can transform the commonplace into the sublime.

Art is a journey into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks.

I am not an abstractionist. I am not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I am interested only in expressing basic human emotions.

The most important things are always unsaid.

Silence is so accurate.

If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly.

There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.

I'm interested in the human drama, the human tragedy.

The picture must be a living thing, a revelation, an experience.

The great painter is one who can transform the commonplace into the sublime.

I am not interested in art as a means of communication, but as an end in itself.

The artist's role is to make the spectator see the world his way.

I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions.

I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on—with colors and forms that will render that which I call the inner image of human feeling.

The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point.

We assert man's absolute emotions. We don't need props or legends. We are dealing with human sensations—tragedies, ecstasies—and what we do is to translate them into visual form.

I paint very large pictures because I'm after something very intimate. Intimacy.

If people want to see beasts, they can go to the zoo.