I tried to make everything breathe in this painting: faith, quiet suffering, religious and primitive style, and great nature with its scream. - Paul Gauguin

[In] painting...all sensations are condensed, everyone...with a single glance [has] his soul invaded by the most profound recollections...everything is summed up in one instant. Like music, it acts on the soul through the intermediary of the senses: harmonious colors correspond to the harmonies of sound.

In order to produce something new, you have to return to the original source, to the childhood of mankind.

I find everything poetic, and it’s in the corners of my heart which are sometimes mysterious that I catch a glimpse of poetry… I feel a sensation that leads me into a poetic state…