Each painter really loves only one painting, the one he would like to make.

A painter must compensate the natural deficiencies of his art. He has but one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit. He cannot, like the poet or historian, expatiate.

Only he who possesses a personal religion, an original view of infinity, can be an artist.

The artist after all is a solitary being.

One has to seek Beauty and Truth, Sir! As I always say to my pupils, you have to work to the finish. There's only one kind of painting. It is the painting that presents the eye with perfection, the kind of beautiful and impeccable enamel you find in Veronese and Titian.

That is an artist as I love artists, modest in his needs: he really wants only two things, his bread and his art - panem et Circen.

Only God Almighty makes painters.

Solitude is the only way to create real art.

An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's.

Art may only exist, and the artist may only evolve, by completing the work.

The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure.

Only a distinctive individual can produce great art. Great art is synonymous with anonymous art.

Painting lives only through the slide towards the unknown in oneself.

The pursuit of perfection in art must always be a noble duty to the artist, but.. .Here [at the Drachenfels ] he feels, more than in any other place, too vividly his inability.. .Stop it, painter! Just please yourself with the impression it makes on your soul; try, if you can, to keep this impression pure, it will teach you how to create ...