Henri Matisse Quotes

A picture must possess a real power to generate light and for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light.

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.

Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have the light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

I wouldn't mind turning into a vermilion goldfish.

Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul.

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue.

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.