"I'm so frustrated. I want to smash everything."

"It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly."

"When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever."

"I'm absolutely disgusted with myself. I'm a failure."

"Dear God, this cursed Cathedral is hard to do… Fourteen paintings on the go today… I'm exhausted and it seems that every day the light changes: it gets whiter and higher up."