Top 15 Edgar Degas Quotes

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.

I want to be famous but unknown!

A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people

And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.

Art is vice. You don't wed it, you rape it.

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.

So that's the telephone? They ring, and you run.

We were created to look at one another, weren't we

Success! Success! The enemy of progress!

Art critic! Is that a profession? When I think we are stupid enough, we painters, to solicit those people's compliments and to put ourselves into their hands! What shame! Should we even accept that they talk about our work?

Muses work all day long and then at night get together and dance...

C'est vrai. Voilá quelqu'un qui sent comme moi. (It is true. There is someone who feels as I do).

Everybody has talent at
twenty-five. The difficult thing is to have it at fifty.

Art is vice. You don't marry it legitimately, you rape it.