Quotes from Henri Matisse

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

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

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.

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

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

I was driven on by.. A force which I see today as something alien to my normal life... so I have been no more than a medium as it were.

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.

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 !

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

Exactitude is not truth.

There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being at one with the audience.

I have to create an object which resembles the tree. The sign for a tree, and not the sign that other artists may have found for the tree.