Henri Matisse Quotes

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

I love 'I'm British But...' It's such a sweet, innocent, open-hearted film, and it has the sort of openness that I still aspire to with everything I do. It wears its heart, head, everything on its sleeve.

I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.

You can be childlike without being childish. A child always wants to have fun. Ask yourself, 'Am I having fun?'

The character I play is a wonderful compilation of things I hate about myself and things I love about myself and things that I've invented to make her even more interesting than me.

Years ago, I carved out an identity, and it has always been about having a voice to tell people about stuff I love.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

People who don't see their nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are lairs and fools.

When you're a kid you have this sense of wonder and wholeness and a strong sense of your own identity.

I think the secret to what Jim Henson did, ultimately, is that he understood how to cut through to the... I know this sounds corny... but the child inside of you.

We learn many things from children, always.

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have something to say to children.

I think we all have a need to know what we do not need to know.

I feel like I'm a much better person when I'm developing my imagination and my innocence and my vulnerability. I like that version of me better than the version where I'm just working on my analytical mind.

To seek understanding before taking action, yet to trust my instincts when action is called for. Never to avoid danger from fear, never to seek out danger for its own sake. Never to conform to fashion from fear of eccentricity, never to be eccentric from fear of conformity.

Dare to err and to dream. Deep meaning often lies in childish plays.

He can't even be at a casual read and not be creating the whole thing in his mind. I remember feeling very awed about how much he still seems to be so in love with it, and so dedicated to making everything really real and really spontaneous.

When you eliminate vanity from an art form, and I would think that this would be any art form, what is left is an opportunity to be incredibly naked and truthful.

My first love is art, and I see a lot of things in an artistic way.

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.

I'll tell you what I love doing more than anything: trying to pack myself in a small suitcase. I can hardly contain myself.

The person is always happy who is in the presence of something they cannot know in full. A person as advanced far in the study of morals who has mastered the difference between pride and vanity.

I can always be distracted by love, but eventually I get horny for my creativity.

I am incredibly, incredibly fortunate about the opportunities I've had. But at the same time, I've had plenty of opportunities to screw it up, too. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can say is 'No...' and not feel the need to do everything. It's about doing what rings true to me.