You could say that I have no inspiration, that I only need to paint. — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
Painting gave meaning to my life which without it would not have had — Francis Bacon Copy Share Image
I paint for myself. I don't know how to do anything else, anyway. Also I have to earn my living, and occupy… — 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
It's always hopeless to talk about painting - one never does anything but talk around it. — 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
Painting is the pattern of one's own nervous system being projected on canvas. — 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
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
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
I foresee it and yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it. It transforms itself by the actual paint.… — 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
If I go to the National Gallery and I look at one of the great paintings that excite me there, it's not… — 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
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've had photographs taken for portraits because I very much prefer working from the photographs than from models... I couldn't attempt to… — 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
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
I feel that I am much freer if I'm on my own, but I'm sure that there are a lot of painters… — 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
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
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
I loathe my own face, and I've done self-portraits because I've had nobody else to do. — 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
I always think of myself not so much as a painter but as a medium for accident and chance. — 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
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
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
