To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.

The world is divided into two classes - invalids and nurses.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

If other people are going to talk, conversation becomes impossible.

As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of color.

To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.

I always ask at once, 'Do you drink?' and if she says 'No,' I bow politely and say I am sorry but I fear she will not suit. All good cooks drink.

I can't tell you if genius is hereditary, because heaven has granted me no offspring.

For art and joy go together, with bold openness, and high head, and ready hand - fearing naught and dreading no exposure.

Mauve is just pink trying to be purple.

Please don't die.

A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

The more we are willing to separate from distraction and step into the open arms of boredom, the more writing will get on the page.

Every day, they gave him new reasons to smile, laugh, worry, and wonder.

I think anger and laughter are very close to each other, when you think about it.

I promised my dad before he passed away that I would take care of the family.

If we understood the power of our thoughts, we would guard them more closely.

Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom under any government, no matter how popular and respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

The people who voted for President Obama are just beginning to wake up to exactly what they brought in. The 'change' they envisioned is not the 'change' they have gotten.

My religion is complicated. Literature is my true religion. After all, I come from a completely non-religious family.