Edgar Degas

“One must do the same subject over again ten times, a hundred times. In art nothing must resemble an accident, not even movement.”

“Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see.”

“A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy.”

“Everybody has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.”

“The true traveler never arrives.”

“Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.”

“A picture is something which requires as much knavery, trickery and deceit as the perpetration of a crime.”

“It is very good to copy what one sees, but it is much better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory.”

“Muses work all day long and then at night get together and dance.”

“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”

“I should like to be famous and unknown.”

“Daylight is too easy. What I want is difficult: the atmosphere of lamps and moonlight.”

“You must have a high opinion of yourself and a low opinion of your work.”