Paula Modersohn-Becker Quotes

In art one is usually totally alone with oneself.

I think the time is coming for struggle and uncertainty. It comes into every serious and beautiful life. I knew all along that it had to come.

I know I shall not live very long... If I've painted three good pictures, then I shall leave gladly with flowers in my hand and my hair.

How happy I would be if I could give figurative expression to the unconscious feeling that often murmurs so softly and sweetly within me.

Nature is supposed to become greater to me than people. It ought to speak louder from me. I should feel small in the face of nature's enormity.

Lack of money rivets us firmly to the ground, one's wings are clipped.

I want to give colors intoxication, fullness, excitement, power by trying to forget Impressionism.

We cleave to the past too much in Germany. All of our German art is too bogged down in the conventional... I think more highly of a free person who consciously puts convention aside.

Worpswede, Worpswede, I cannot get you out of my mind... Your magnificent pine trees! I call them my men--thick, gnarled, powerful, and tall--yet with the most delicate nerves and fibers in them.