"Never, even as a child, would I bend to a rule."
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Quote collection
Claude Monet quotes (page 6 of 9)
161 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I've said it before and can only repeat that I owe everything to Boudin and I attribute my success to him. I came to be fascinated by his studies, the products of what I call instantaneity."
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"I say that whoever claims to have finished a canvas is terribly arrogant."
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"I let a good many mistakes show through when fixing my sensations. It will always be the same and this is what makes me despair."
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"It is difficult to stop in time because one gets carried away. But I have that strength; it is the only strength I have."
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"I am enslaved to my work, always wanting the impossible, and never, I believe, have I been less favoured by the endlessly changeable weather."
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"I never draw except with brush and paint."
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"I've been working so hard that I'm exhausted... I feel I won't be able to do without a few weeks' rest, so I'm going off to see the sea."
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"One is too taken up with all that one sees and hears in Paris, however strong one is, and what I do here [in Etretat] will at least have the merit of being unlike anyone else, at least I believe so, because it will simply be the expression of what I, and only I, have felt."
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"The effect of sincerity is to give one's work the character of a protest. The painter, being concerned only with conveying his impression, simply seeks to be himself and no one else."
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"When I look at nature I feel as if I'll be able to paint it all, note it all down, and then you might as well forget it once you're working."
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"Despite my exhaustion I have a devil of a time getting to sleep because of the rats above my bed and a pig who lives beneath my room."
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"It goes without saying that I will do anything at any price to pull myself out of a situation like this [rejection] so that I can start work immediately on my next Salon picture and ensure that such a thing should not happen again."
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"Work is nearly always a torture. If I could find something else I would be much happier, because I could use this other interest as a form of relaxation. Now I cannot relax."
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"What can be said about a man who is interested in nothing but his painting? It's a pity if a man can only interest himself in one thing. But I can't do any thing else. I have only one interest."
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"I've always refused requests even from friends to employ a technique I know nothing about."
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"I'm quite content: although what I'm doing is far from being as I should like, I am complemented often enough all the same."
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"It would be asking too much to want to sell only to connoisseurs - that way starvation lies."
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"I've spent so long on some paintings that I no longer know what to think of them, and I am definitely getting harder to please; nothing satisfies me."
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"I know well enough in advance that you'll find my paintings perfect. I know that if they are exhibited they'll be a great success, but I couldn't be more indifferent to it since I know they are bad, I'm certain of it."
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