The nature of things betrays itself more readily under the vexations of art than in its natural freedom. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I always think of myself not so much as a painter but as a medium for accident and chance. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting gave meaning to my life which without it would not have had — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
It's such an extraordinary supple medium that you never do quite know what paint will do. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting is the pattern of one's own nervous system being projected on canvas. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
When I paint I am ageless, I just have the pleasure or the difficulty of painting. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
It's always hopeless to talk about painting - one never does anything but talk around it. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I use all sorts of things to work with: old brooms, old sweaters, and all kinds of peculiar tools and materials... I… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I don't think people are born artists; I think it comes from a mixture of your surroundings, the people you meet, and… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Before I start painting I have a slightly ambiguous feeling: happiness is a special excitement because unhappiness is always possible a moment… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
You want accuracy, but not representation. If you know how to make the figuration, it doesn't work. Anything you can make, you… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
No artist knows in his own lifetime whether what he does will be the slightest good, because it takes at least seventy-five… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I don't believe art is available; it's rare and curious and should be completely isolated; one is more aware of its magic… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Some paint comes across directly onto the nervous system and other paint tells you the story in a long diatribe through the… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his despairs. These things alter an artist… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Very few people have a natural feeling for painting, and so, of course, they naturally think that painting is an expression of… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Great art is always a way of concentrating, reinventing what is called fact, what we know of our existence- a reconcentration… tearing… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become completely a game, by which man distracts himself. What is… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
My painting is not violent, it's life that is violent. Even within the most beautiful landscape, in the trees, under the leaves,… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I think I tend to destroy the better paintings, or those that have been better to a certain extent. I try and… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Some artists leave remarkable things which, a 100 years later, don't work at all. I have left my mark; my work is… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I want to make portraits and images. I don't know how. Out of despair, I just use paint anyway. Suddenly the things… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I think that one of the things is that, if you are going to decide to be a painter, you have got… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
An artist must learn to be nourished by his passions and by his despairs. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I regret not starting to paint earlier...It is one of the few things I do regret. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Excusations, cessions, modesty itself well governed, are but arts of ostentation. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
You could say that I have no inspiration, that I only need to paint. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I should have been, I don't know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
All painting is an accident. But it's also not an accident, because one must select what part of the accident one chooses… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Velazquez found the perfect balance between the ideal illustration which he was required to produce, and the overwhelming emotion he aroused in… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Images also help me find and realise ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I have to hope that my instincts will do the right thing, because I can't erase what I have done. And if… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
All artists are vain, they long to be recognized and to leave something to posterity. They want to be loved, and at… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting is a duality and abstract painting is an entirely aesthetic thing. It always remains on one level. It is only really… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Princes are like heavenly bodies, which cause good or evil times, and which have much veneration, but no rest. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
The best preservative to keep the mind in health is the faithful admonition of a friend. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Since custom is the principal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means endeavor to obtain good customs. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting today is pure intuition and luck and taking advantage of what happens when you splash the stuff down. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
When Christ came into the world, peace was sung; and when He went out of the world, peace was bequeathed. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
...neither is it possible to discover the more remote and deeper parts of any science, if you stand but upon the level of the… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
The divisions of science are not like different lines that meet in one angle, but rather like the branches of trees that join in… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I should have been, I don't know, a con-man, a robber or a prostitute. But it was vanity that made me choose painting, vanity… — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
