Monet’s work would have been even greater if he had not abandoned figure-painting.

Bonnat tells me, ‘Your painting isn’t bad, it is chic, but even so it isn’t bad, but your drawing is absolutely atrocious.’ So I must gather my courage and start once again...

I can paint until I’m forty. After that I intend to dry up.

I paint things as they are. I don’t comment. I record.

I don’t belong to any school. I work in my corner. I admire Degas.

I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called to me: ‘Monsieur, don’t forget your pencil.’ It was very unkind, but most funny.

Only the human figure exists; landscape is, and should be, no more than an accessory; the painter exclusively of landscape is nothing but a bore.

In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.

I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called to me: 'Monsieur, don't forget your pencil.' It was very unkind, but most funny.

I paint things as they are. I don't comment. I record.