"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."

"He would not make so much as a single brushstroke without having the model before him."

"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 ca…"

"I have no desire to please anyone but myself."

"One must paint what one sees, not what one imagines."