Henri Matisse

The wall around the window does not create two worlds.

— Henri Matisse

Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.

— Henri Matisse

To arrive is to be in prison.

— Henri Matisse

When I saw what a mess everything was in I asked for my money back on the ticket. I would have felt…

— Henri Matisse

A painting in an interior spreads joy around it by the colors, which calm us.

— Henri Matisse

Color was not given to us in order that we should imitate Nature. It was given to us so that we can…

— Henri Matisse

If it is practiced by a man of taste, the photograph will have the appearance of art (but) the photographer must...intervene as…

— Henri Matisse

I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets…

— Henri Matisse

The chief function of color should be to serve expression as well as possible.

— Henri Matisse

One gets into a state of creativity by conscious work.

— Henri Matisse

My pictures are made up of four or five colors that collide with one another…

— Henri Matisse

What I dream of is an art of balance.

— Henri Matisse

...I am driven on by an idea that I really only grasp as it grows with the picture.

— Henri Matisse

I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

— Henri Matisse

After a half-century of hard work and reflection the wall is still there.

— Henri Matisse

All that I really have to recount are observations and notes made during the course of my life as a painter. I…

— Henri Matisse

When I eat a tomato I look at it the way anyone else would. But when I paint a tomato, then I…

— Henri Matisse

I may be weird, but creative wise I have the knowledge to know and believe in my heart that my weirdness makes…

— Henri Matisse

Ever since there have been men, man has given himself over to too little joy. That alone, my brothers, is our original…

— Henri Matisse

The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring an effort.

— Henri Matisse

There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look.

— Henri Matisse

Fit the parts together, one into the other, and build your figure like a carpenter builds a house. Everything must be constructed,…

— Henri Matisse

Everything that we see in our daily lives is more or less distorted by acquired habits and this is perhaps more evident…

— Henri Matisse

The best way to kill time is to work it to death

— Henri Matisse

He who loves, flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free and nothing holds him back.

— Henri Matisse