"To swim in the open sky. To achieve the tenderness of clouds. To suspend these masses in the distance, very far away …"

"Imagine an immense plain.. ..in the middle, a small Gothic chapel surrounded by trees.. ..around that a hundred tents…"

"They [the holiday-visitors near Le Havre] love my little ladies [paintings] on the beach, and some people say that th…"

"I have a confession to make. When I came back to.. ..the beach at Trouville.. ..it seeemed nothing more than than a f…"

"The peasants have their painters, Millet, Jaque, Breton; and that is a good thing.. ..Well and good: but between you …"

"I dare not think of the sun-drenched beaches and the stormy skies, and of the joy of painting them in the sea breezes."

"When I got back [from Le Havre], where I had made several sketches of the harbour exit, I thought of placing the sun …"

"I exhaust myself terribly to content the world, and never manage to content myself."

"I am obsessed with the idea of leaving. I must travel, for that would probably relax me."

"Nature is richer than I represent it.. .Nature is so beautiful that when I am not tortured by poverty I am tortured b…"