Quotes from Henri Matisse

I may be weird, but creative wise I have the knowledge to know and believe in my heart that my weirdness makes me unique. It is also in my so called weird that I am also able to know the difference and then stop my complaining and go out and make something somebody has never seen before. I was just ahead of my time that was what that was. xD !

With color one obtains an energy that seems to stem from witchcraft.

The essential thing is to work in a state of mind that approaches prayer.

Hatred is a parasite that devours all. One doesn't build upon hatred, but upon love.

Truth and reality in art do not arise until you no longer understand what you are doing and are capable of but nevertheless sense a power that grows in proportion to your resistance.

Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

When I saw what a mess everything was in I asked for my money back on the ticket. I would have felt I was deserting. If everyone of any value leaves France, what will remain of France?

When you're out of willpower, you can call on stubbornness.

The essential thing is to spring forth, to express the bolt of lightning one senses upon contact with a thing. The function of the artist is not to translate an observation but to express the shock of the object on his nature; the shock, with the original reaction.

The effort to see things without distortion takes something like courage and this courage is essential to the artist, who has to look at everything as though he saw it for the first time.

My curves are not crazy.