The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things,
but their inward significance. 
Aristotle

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works;
if from the head, almost nothing. 
Marc Chagall

I begin with an idea, and then it becomes something else entirely. 
Pablo Picasso

​We artists are driven towards personal lives
nourished in these strange techniques of self-pursuit.
Lawrence Durrell

Art always has something of the unconscious about it.
D. T. Suzuki

There is something in painting which cannot be explained,
and that something is essential. 
Pierre Renoir

Abstraction allows a man to see with his mind
what he cannot see physically with his eyes.
Arshile Gorky

If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint. 
Edward Hopper

"A consistent body of work” is convenient as a marketing ploy or an academic constraint. It has nothing to do with an artist’s creativity or genius.
TR

Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.
Henri David Thoreau

If a man is satisfied only with what he sees physically
​and cannot imagine creatively,
he will stagnate.
Arshile Gorky

As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself.
What is the use of giving explanations when all is said and done?  
Pablo Picasso

The tiny, enduring wheel set deep in the clanging, churning machinery of the art trade—the artist himself.
Mavis Gallant

No great artist ever sees things as they really are.
If he did, he would cease to be an artist. 
Oscar Wilde

The position of the artist is humble.
He is essentially a channel. 
Piet Mondrian

Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible,
​to extract the infinite out of the finite.
It is the emancipator of the mind.
It is an exploration into unknown areas. 
Arshile Gorky

I found I could say things with color and shapes
​that I couldn't say any other way--
things I had no words for. 
Georgia O'Keefe

Don’t think about making art, just get it done. 
Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. 
While they are deciding, make even more art.
Andy Warhol

The only time I feel alive is when I'm painting. 
Vincent Van Gogh

Thinking is more interesting than knowing,
but less interesting than looking. 
Goethe

When you can't create, work.
Henry Miller

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
Sigmund Freud