Honore de Balzac Quotes

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

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.

My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings.

My work isn't about form. It's about seeing.

The longer I look at something, the more my imagination churns and I can find somewhere to put it.

My foregrounds are imaginary, my backgrounds real.

You know a trillion times more about art than me. But I’ve learned that it isn’t necessary to know all that much. You just make what you wanna see, right? It’s a game, right? It’s like being paid for dreaming.

A sculptor is a person obsessed with the form and the shape of things, and it's not just Ihe shape of any one thing, but the shape of any thing and everything.

I have titles floating around in my head; I have sculptures floating around in my head. It's like a collage.

An artist is like a pig snouting truffles.

No good to paint in the head - what happens is what happens when you put the paint down - you can only hope that you are alert - ready - to see. What joy it is for paint to become a thing - a being. Believe in this miracle - it is your only hope. To will this transformation is not possible. Only a slow maturation can prepare the hand and eye to become quicker than ever. Ideas about art don't matter. They collapse anyway in front of the painting.

My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea, even switch me to different subject matter. So I start out with my mind as free from image as the silver film on which I am to record, and I hope as sensitive.

Imagination is a powerful force underlying all knowing

It taught that there are three versions of things: the one I see in my mind, and the one that carries onto the paper, and then what it ultimately becomes.

I can't work without a model. I won't say I turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colors, enlarging and simplifying; but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and the true.

You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.

I have always liked drawing, when you draw you see things more intensely.

A lot of cinematography is intuition. It's an art, not a formula.

As an artist, there are times when you need to take a leap of faith... For me, it's important that the gaze is correct.

Sometimes I think of creativity or art as this well that we all draw from.

I am interested in relating the things we see with the things we see with our eyes closed.

All works of art should begin... at the end.

Leave to the masters of art trained by a lifetime of devotion the wonderful process of picture-building and picture creation. Go out into the sunlight and be happy with what you see.

That's what art is. You don't make up stories. You live your life.