“For in truth, great love is born of great knowledge of the thing loved.”

“The truth in art is the pain it shelters.”

“Don’t just practice your art but force yourself into its secret. ”

“Creativity is an act of defiance. ”

“Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art. ”

“A line is a dot that went for a walk. ”

“Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him an instrument. ”

“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. ”

“Every artist dips his brush into his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures. ”

“I am interested in art as a means of living, not as a means of making a living. ”

“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul. ”

“Basically there can be no categories such as ‘religious’ art and ‘secular’ art, because all true art is incarnational and therefore ‘religious.’ ”

“I don’t paint dreams or nightmares; I paint my own reality. ”

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. ”

“The objective isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable. ”

“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art. ”

“Art without emotion is like chocolate without sugar. It makes you gag. ”

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ”

“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. ”

“Art is not what you see but what you make others see. ”

“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow for Heaven’s sake. ”

“God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things. ”

“Only by examining our personal biases can we truly grow as artists. Only by cultivating empathy can we truly grow as people. ”

“A writer—and, I believe, generally all persons—must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments . . . all is given to us as raw materials, as clay, so that we can shape our art. ”

“Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the ‘creative bug’ is just a wee voice telling you, I’d like my crayons back, please. ”

“When we speak of nature, it is wrong to forget that we ourselves are a part of nature. We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we, too, are linked to the entire universe. ”

“The painter’s mind is a copy of the Divine Mind, since it operates freely creating the many kinds of animals, plants, fruits, landscape, country side, ruins and awe inspiring places.”

“It is the artist who realizes that there is a supreme force above him and works gladly as a small apprentice under God’s heaven. ”

“The heart of creativity is an experience of the mystical union; the heart of the mystical union is an experience of creativity. ”

“The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude. ”

“What makes the artist is his power to shape the material of pain we all have. ”

“Creativity takes courage and what I dream of is an art of balance; of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter. ”

“Every good painter paints what he is. ”