Francis Bacon Quotes

It's all emotion. But there's nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. When we are on vacation, we are not rational; we are emotional.

Sometimes I see it and then paint it. Other times I paint it and then see it. Both are impure situations, and I prefer neither.

Everyone couldn't be happier and more terrified.

Sadness is a very interesting idea, this idea of sadness being some kind of default setting that artists will go into. And then I started thinking about this idea of sadness and happiness, and the idea that sadness is very loud, and happiness is quiet.

I don't think anyone does anything from happiness. Happiness is such a good state, it doesn't need to be creative. You're not creative from happiness, you're just happy. You're creative when you're miserable and depressed. You find the key to transform things. Happiness does not need to transform.

I'm not actually sure if guilt is an emotion.

Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.

I don't know of any good work of art that doesn't have a mystery.

Very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of course, they naturally think that painting is an expression of the artist's mood. But it rarely is. Very often he may be in greatest despair and be painting his happiest paintings.

Writers often write their best when they are feeling their worst

Songwriting is a mystery. And it's a mystery to me that it's a mystery. But that sounds stupid.

This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?" "I don't know. Is it a longing? Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with me?" "Yes," she said. "That's influenza," said Miro. "Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours.

If artists and poets are unhappy, it is after all because happiness does not interest them.

I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his despairs. These things alter an artist whether for the good or the better or the worse. It must alter him. The feelings of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility.

For an artist to do creative work, he needs at once physical health and some physiomental ill health. He needs both serenity and gloom.

You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes".

I love art. It is uplifting.

I can't give any absolute definition of what love is, or even whether it ought to exist.

I do explore the emotion every once in a while. I'd like to think you don't stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

...there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness, too. That was writing.

You kind of notice what's going on in your body, and you can kind of feel a certain tightening, or fear, which is something that, as an artist, I've kind of befriended. I can pretty much count on it for anything that I engage in - that thing like, "Am I going to be able to pull this off?" Well, what am I gonna do with this feeling? The more nervous you get, the more worried you get about it. So you pay attention to what you might need.

When inspiration and emotions are sudden, and you can truly capture something, then, yeah, of course it feels good. But when you’re stunted, and you’re having trouble expressin’ yourself, then obviously it doesn’t. So it’s never constant.

When you aren't sure what it is you hate or why you even hate it, it's hard to hold onto the details...you just hold on to the feelings.

No one can tell if I’m laughing or weeping. I wonder myself.

I know I'm bitter and a little jaded, and mildly enjoy it, but am I a sad person? Am I happy? I plan on being happy in the future for sure, but it isn't here yet. So what does that make me, exactly?