Partly through choice, I was never willing to hire out more than three days a week [making illustrations for the magazines to support himself, c. 191… - Edward Hopper

All I ever wanted to do is to paint sunlight on the side of a wall.

There may come, or perhaps has come, a time when no further progress in truthful representation is possible. There are those who say that such a point has been reached, an attempt to substitute a more and more simplified and decorative calligraphy. This direction is sterile and without hope to those who wish to give painting a richer and more human meaning and a wider scope. No one can correctly forecast the direction that painting will take in the next few years, but to me at least there seems to be a revulsion against the invention of arbitrary and stylized design.

If this end is unattainable, so, it can be said, is perfection in any other ideal of painting or in any other of man's activities.