Quotes from Claude Monet

When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape.

Every day I discover even more beautiful things. It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all - my head is bursting…

If the world really looks like that I will paint no more!

I want to paint the way a bird sings.

Impression — I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it … and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.

For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.

The further I get, the more I regret how little I know…

I get madder and madder on giving back what I feel.

Water Lilies' is an extension of my life. Without the woter the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers

The essence of the motif is the mirror of water, whose appearance alters at every moment.

The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.

I must have flowers, always and always.

The Seine. I have painted it all my life, at all hours of the day, at all times of the year, from Paris to the sea…Argenteuil, Poissy, Vétheuil, Giverny, Rouen, Le Havre.

To see, we must forget the name of the things we are looking at

I am installed in a fairylike place. I do not know where to poke my head; everything is superb, and I would like to do everything, so I use up and squander lots of color, for there are trials to be made.

Here I am surrounded by the things I love. I spend my time in the open, on the beach in stormy weather or when the fishing boats put out [...] In the evenings, my dear friend, there is a warm fire in my cottage, and the cosiness of a small family [...] I am now enjoying a spell of quiet, free of chores. Ideally I should like to stay in a peaceful nook like this for ever.

There, the grand lines of mountain and sea are admirable, and apart from the exotic vegetation that is here, Monte Carlo is certainly the most beautiful spot of the entire coast: the motifs there are more complete, more picturelike, and consequently easier to execute.

The light constantly changes, and that alters the atmosphere and beauty of things every minute.

I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house and the boat are to be found - the beauty of the air around them, and that is nothing less than the impossible.

One's better off alone, and yet there are so many things that are impossible to fathom on one's own. In fact it's a terrible business and the task is a hard one.

It is a tragedy that we live in a world where physical courage is so common, and moral courage is so rare.

Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.

I'm in fine fettle and fired with a desire to paint.