You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

Quote by Henri Matisse

Topics: Doing Your Best Quotes

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that...

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that...

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose,...

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose,...

All that I really have to recount are observations and notes made during the course...

All that I really have to recount are observations and notes made during the course...

There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being...

There are wonderful things in real jazz, the talent for improvisation, the liveliness, the being...

I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me.

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color -...

It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color -...

I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth...

I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth...

In love, the one who runs away is the winner.

In love, the one who runs away is the winner.

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

A picture must possess a real power to generate light [and] for a long time...

A picture must possess a real power to generate light [and] for a long time...

In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be...

In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature. You must be...

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose,...

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose,...

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures...

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures...

Exactitude is not truth.

Exactitude is not truth.

I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth...

I would like to recapture that freshness of vision which is characteristic of extreme youth...

Creativity takes courage.

Creativity takes courage.

Better late than never is poor consolation for the man who has lost the opportunity...

Better late than never is poor consolation for the man who has lost the opportunity...

A stone thrown at the right time is better than gold given at the wrong...

A stone thrown at the right time is better than gold given at the wrong...

Time is money only if seeds of painful efforts are sown in the fertile land...

Time is money only if seeds of painful efforts are sown in the fertile land...