Henri Matisse

I do it in self-defence.

I only paint the difference between things.

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

All the artists who began by being hungry and cold have made good painting. Everybody, Picasso, Magritte, Rouault and myself, all began like that. The facts signify something.

If I close my eyes, I see things better than with my eyes open.

I am as curious about color as one would be visiting a new country, because I have never concentrated so closely on color expression. Up to now I have waited at the gates of the temple.

With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.

A chef doesn't have to always ask for approval and to ask [others] people to taste the plates that he prepares. If you must trouble yourself with the public, painting, its art, what one has to say, one cannot arrive, it is too complicated.

I think that art must not be a disagreeable thing. There is enough unhappiness in life to turn one towards the joy.

I have always seen those who liked painting, they were the ones who didn't have a [son?].

The painters believe that they exist because people speak of them. It is more simple and more difficult than that.

My equilibrium has been broken by a major piece of decorative work that has lasted three years.

I do not claim to teach; I only want my exhibition not to suggest false interpretations to those who have their own way to make.

I should like people to know that they cannot approach color as if coming into a barn door ('entrer au moulin'); that one must go through a severe preparation to be worthy of it.

And not everyone can declare like Correggio, 'Anch'io son pittore' (I too am a painter).