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

Work a great deal at evening effects, lamplight, candlelight, etc. The intriguing thing is not to show the source of the light but the effect of the lighting.

You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.

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.