Henri Matisse

"I want to reach the state of condensation of sensations which constitutes a picture. Perhaps I might be satisfied momentarily with a work finished at one sitting, but I would soon get bored looking at…"

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

"A picture must possess a real power to generate light.. ..for a long time now I've been conscious of expressing myself through light or rather in light."

"Tomorrow, Sunday, at 4 o'clock, visit from Picasso. As I'm expecting to see him tomorrow, my mind is at work. I'm doing this propaganda show with him. I can imagine the room with my pictures on one si…"

"Composition, the aim of which is expression, alters itself according to the surface to be covered. If I take a sheet of paper of given dimensions I will jot down a drawing which will have a necessary …"

"We are born with the sensibility of a period of civilization. We are not masters of our production; it is imposed upon us."

"Rules have no existence outside of individuals: otherwise a good professor would be as great a genius as Racine."

"I see with horror that the 'Salon Automne' is looming, for I haven't got, and shan't have, all I meant to be able to show there, the big stillife has taken up so much of my time; but since I am conten…"