Irving Stone

“The fields that push up the corn, and the water that rushes down the ravine, the juice of the grape, and the life of a man as it flows past him, are all one and the same thing. The sole unity in life is the unity of rhythm. A rhythm to which we all dance; men, apples, ravines, ploughed fields, carts among the corn, houses, horses, and the sun. The stuff that is in you, Gauguin, will pound through a grape tomorrow, because you and the grape are one. When I paint a peasant labouring in the field, I want people to feel the peasant flowing down into the soil, just as the corn does, and the soil flowing up into the peasant. I want them to feel the sun pouring into the peasant, into the field, the corn, the plough, and the horses, just as they all pour back into the sun. When you begin to feel the universal rhythm in which everything on earth moves, you begin to understand life….”

“Only now, years after having read though the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Scott, Poe, Balzac did he realise that even the most prolific writer created only one novel; throw away the individual bindings and the whole of each man's writing constituted one book: the true and complete portrait of himself. An artist had one thing to say, and one only; he might flail about, seek new techniques, forms, colour combinations, subjects, but intrinsically he would always paint the same canvas, write the same book.”

“As he went about to the other workrooms he realised that every painting was a self-portrait even when it was a still life or a scene over the roofs of Paris; for no man ever pictured anything but himself, his core, the things that he was basically. With every brush stroke the artist was mercilessly exposed: he could not conceal nothing, he could pretend to be another person, to believe in other values, but in the end he would fool no one.”

“...Kita harus bertindak sesuai dengan nalar kita, dan selanjutnya biarkan Tuhan yang menentukan nilai akhirnya, Kalau kau yakin pada saat ini ingin menjadi pelayan Sang Pencipta kita dengan cara tertentu, maka keyakinan itulah satu-satunya pembimbing yang kau miliki menuju masa depan. Jangan takut untuk meyakini hal ini.”

“Cardinal Giovanni still did not like delicate matters; they were usually painful.”

“L'arte è fatta per coloro che si sente indegno senza di essa.”

“A new doctor had been sent for, Lazzaro of Pavia, who had administered to Lorenzo a pulverized mixture of diamonds and pearls. This hitherto infallible medicine had failed to help.”

“Do you know the anecdote about Rubens? He was serving Holland as Ambassador to Spain and used to spend the afternoon in the royal gardens before his easel. One day a jaunty member of the Spanish Court passed and remarked, ‘I see that the diplomat amuses himself sometimes with painting,’ to which Rubens replied, ‘No, the painter amuses himself sometimes with diplomacy!”

“Indignation. Best fuel I know. Never burns out.”

“Vincent did not know how to express his feelings in words. He knew how to paint them.However, one cannot paint the farewell.”

“After all, the world is still great.”

“How difficult it is to be simple.”

“All artists are crackpots. And it's their finest feature.”

“Art destroys the life.”

“Being mad is even pleasant. But only a madman understands that.”

“Normal people do not create art.”

“No artist is normal. Who happen to be normal cannot be an artist.”

“There's no love without pain.”

“A person may paint or talk about painting but he cannot do both at the same time.”

“Money makes the man a beast.”

“Art should be linked to abstract things - color, line, tone. It is not an instrument to improve social conditions and chase ugliness. Painting is like music and it has to separate from everyday reality.”

“Morality is similar to religion - it is a somniferous drug which blinds people from seeing the squalor of their lives.”

“There are neither good nor evil, only the existence and action.”

“Religion will never show the way.”

“Someday my paintings will be hanging in the Louvre.[Vincent Van Gogh]”

“An artist does not have to think about what he is doing.”

“Life's not so bad after all. There are not only poison but also antidotes.”

“Actually, Paris wakes up when it comes time for aperitif.”

“We are all are cripples in some way.[Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec]”

“The one who has not seen Paris in the morning does not know how beautiful it is.”

“On croit que j'imagine — ce n'est pas vrai — je me souviens.[They say I imagine — it is not true — I remember.]”

“Loneliness is a kind of prison.[Vincent Van Gogh]”

“It's so easy to love. The only hard thing is to be loved.[Vincent Van Gogh]”

“Sometimes men are generous and forgiving, sometimes angry and blind.”

“Misery is the only thing in the world that has no end or edge.”

“Artists thrive on suffering.”

“Fortune is beastly — it is only suitable for cows and businessmen.”

“A man who has not suffered has nothing to tell with his paintings.”

“An empty stomach is better than full and grief is better than happiness.”

“Only suffering grows big artists.”

“Savoir souffrir sans se plaindre, ça c‘est la seule chose pratique, c‘est la grande science, la leçon à apprendre, la solution du problème de la vie.[Knowing how to suffer without complaining is the only practical thing, it's the great science, the lesson to learn, the solution to the problem of life.]”

“You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry.[Vincent Van Gogh]”

“Every man must settle down once in a lifetime.”

“Perhaps you could not find such godless, such ruthless and such materialist people as clergy.”

“Who loves — lives, who lives - works, and who works has some bread.”

“I do not know a better cure for mental illness than a book.”

“An artist would not rise above the mediocrity if he condemns it.”

“The artist has to take risks.”

“Nature always resists the artist at the beginning.”

“I will be an artist. I am sure I will.[Vincent Van Gogh]”