Caravaggio

He was of a dark and melancholy temperament, and very quarrelsome.

I paint with my eyes, not with my hands.

He died miserably, as he had lived.

I am a man of my time, and I paint what is around me.

He would not admit that a good painting could be made without a model.

I paint what I feel, not what I think.

He was always dressed in black, with a sword at his side.

I have no desire to please anyone but myself.

He would not suffer any criticism of his work.

I am a painter of reality, not of dreams.

I care not for the praise of men; what I do, I do for myself.

It is better to kill than to copy.

I was seized the other day in Piazza Navona, I do not know why. I am a painter. I think I know nearly all the painters in Rome ... but not all of them are good men. By a good man I mean someone who can perform well in his art, and by a good painter a man who can paint well and imitate nature well.

I don't know any painter who thinks Giovanni Baglione is a good painter. His Resurrection is clumsy – the worst he's done.

Smell them and see.

I wounded myself with my own sword when I fell down these stairs. I don't know where it was and there was no one else there.

I see this priest for the first time.

All works, no matter what or by whom painted, are nothing but bagatelles and childish trifles... unless they are made and painted from life, and there can be nothing... better than to follow nature.