A mere cast taken from nature will always be more real than the best copy a man can produce, for can anyone conceive that an artist’s hand is not gui… - Eugène Delacroix

By keeping a record of my experiences I live my life twice over. The past returns to me. The future is always with me. (Wednesday 7 April 1824)

I did not come to know part II of 'Faust' until long after I made my illustrations, and even then only very superficially. It struck me as an ill-digested work, of little interest from the literary standpoint, but among those most calculated to inspire a painter owing to the mixture of characters and styles it contains.. .You asked what gave me the first idea of the Faust lithographs. I remember that about 1821 I saw the designs made by Retch [ [[w:Moritz Retzsch|Retzsch] ]] and found them rather striking; but it was above all the performance of a dramatic opera on Faust that I saw in London in 1825 which stirred me to do something on the subject. The actor.. ..was a perfect Mephistopheles; he was fat, but that in no way diminished his nimbleness and his Satanic character.

La musique est la volupté de l'imagination.