"You cannot know at all what will comes out of you because all your knowledge is running otherwise. What you do not know and what you thought that there would not come at all, that comes out and appears at once, sometimes with a curse and a sigh, and there you have it. - Everything ends well. I made things that I had forgotten for twenty five years. At first I knew them too well, but then I forgot them, I 'had to' forget them. And then I made them. - If some work does not becomes beautiful, well, then you go back to do something else. Worrying doesn't help at all. It will be better later? No, you should not say such things, because you don't know anything about 'becoming better'."

“Actually I don't have any painting at home.. ..they take away everything from me, almost before it's finished.. .That Jewish scribe there, is sold to Buffa, and it isn't finished at all yet. And this 'Kolen lossen' is also sold.. .Then I have here 'The Mowers' - just set up.. .And that drawing here, will be a good piece too!. .That will become a large painting: a 'Jewish Wedding' - at the moment the groom puts the ring on the finger of his bride.. ..you can't see very much yet, do you?”

“That is always difficult and can only become a potboiler.”

“..the owner .. ..had to hear a lot of comments about it, they called it the apotheosis of a cape, the figure much too big for the frame, etc. etc. so they advised him to exchange it for one of my other works.”

“The old clothing-jew I made, was a Jew. But not because he was a Jew I painted him -.. ..a painter paints like a painter and not because he is a Jew.. .”

“Isaac and Liebermann had a lot of hassle with horses at the beach during the summer and I also got a wipe of it..”

“Take care for purity in the paint and not so stinky thick of grease, thin, thin, thin! And just on the light here and there a small push of thick .. ..thick house-interiors are unpleasant - long drawing before you start and arrange pleasantly together all things before you start to paint - if the money does not bother you, it is always useful to visit Rott. .”