"I'm doing my very best to put all my energy into it, for I long so much to make beautiful things. But beautiful things require effort — and disappointment and perseverance."

"The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts ... it astonishes me that they have not yet been done as I see them."

"What moulting is to birds, the time when they change their feathers, that's adversity or misfortune, hard times, for us human beings. Instead of giving way to despair, I took the way of active melanch…"

"Next, I'm attempting to do dusty thistles with a great swarm of butterflies swirling above them."

"Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me."