"They would go off to college and when they come home they'd pick up their interest in me, like a parent ... One of my sister had me in Eton collars and tunics; then she went off and another came home and disapproved of those dull clothes and put me in some fancy little things. Everyone was trying to do something to me, except my mother. She was indifferent."

"I didn't want to be a woman artist, I just wanted to be an artist."

"I hope my work is recognizable as being by a woman, though I certainly would never deliberately make it feminine in any way, in subject or treatment. But if I speak in a voice which is my own, it's bound to be the voice of a woman."

"I received a draft of a beautiful Tree penciled on a large sheet of white paper bearing ripe fruit I saw it plainly it looked very singular and curious to me. I have since learned that this tree grows in the Spirit Land. Afterwards the spirit showed me plainly the branches, leaves, and fruit presented or drawn upon paper. The leaves were checked or (unreadable) and the same color you see here. I entreated Mother Ann to tell me the name of this tree which she did Oct 1st 4th hour PM by moving the hand of a medium to write twice over Your Tree is the Tree of Life."

"One element that seems to run throughout Martin's forty years of work is the physical and psychological mechanics of the body/mind. Whether spirited in animals or manifested through abstraction, they are about ourselves: our neurosis, the dreams we hope for, how we eat... Ultimately though, they reveal our resistance to escape the gravitational pull of stillness - the inevitable conclusion to life."

"As have the Chinese and English Languages, Eugene has stripped his grammer to the naked bone, sinewed the simple frame, and created a rich vocabulary of meaning, sight and emotion. Yet, always there is discipline."

"Lorsque l'art d'écrire obsède mon esprit et ronge insidieusement mes forces, je laisse errer mon regard sur un dessein d"Eugene Martin, je me repaîs de ses couleurs sereines et puise des certitudes dans ses lumières si denses."

"MUSEUM They came, they looked, they walked their eyes wide open they didn’t see because their minds were closed Their eyes wide open they didn’t know they couldn’t see because their minds were closed; so they looked, and left."

"Conflict is necessary for growth. But too often conflict becomes a haven for the soul. Until one day, the soul can no longer free itself. In real growth the soul learns to fly rather than having the ego inflated with praise from accomplishments as if it were a balloon. Only because it buys time, do we develop a strong and protective ego. This is the early stage in the soul’s evolution, until such time when the soul hatches out of its shell, which is the ego, into a new world in which there is incomparable beauty."

"Beware of the possible reason some people are honestly down and out - it is because they tried to copy the many who are superficially doing well."

"Truth rides best In that which looks ridiculous."

"Rather than programming children as if they were computers, parents should be something like art instructors. Because life is like a clump-of-clay, you can’t make it into an expression of beauty, unless you take it into your hands. While sprinkling their lives with painful and playful diversions, people wait their lives miserably into old age, for the skills to live-life, to–come as did life- itself."

"Things differ because of the time in which they exist. In time, things opposite will reverse themselves. Also, judging does the opposite of clearing it confuses. Now, if any of this you judged to be non-sense, then perhaps it’s not so obvious that judging is the worst escort perception can have."

"Vanity begins and ends with deception, so the reason people put interesting and attractive clothes on their bodies is perhaps the same for having uninteresting and unattractive expressions on their faces."

"Truth is so large OR people’s minds are so small that they’re only able to nibble on the edges – and when growth brings them to the area where they can feed on truth itself, as they move in and eat of the seed, there they become truth."

"Because of guilt there is painful diversion; because of greed there is playful diversion; because of grass there is pleasurable diversion."

"Having a sincere desire to want growth does not mean at that point you are committing yourself to growth."

"'It’s a great tragedy that the ability to act is used to manipulate people, but it is a greater tragedy that people welcome it while sometimes making a phony protest."

"There are lesser people not for what they are, but for why they are."

"It’s past time that people get involved in thinking – now that the computers can take over the field of memory."

"People fight not because they disagree,but because they don’t know they agree."

"Being able to communicate with someone doesn’t necessarily mean that you understand them."

"Most writers are successful in getting their readers’ attention, but fail at getting them to think. If you’re asked to explain anything philosophical to anyone, the chances are great their understanding will be superficial; it’s best they don’t understand than to think they do, so encourage them to grow into understanding and don’t hand them too much explanation."

"Passion is a disguise for attachment – sometimes as hate and other times as love."

"Genius does not only require superior knowledge and skill, but also superior patience."

"Because of subconscious guilt, people spend half their lives in self-punishment and the other half taking on more guilt."

"The words “human nature” can be the greatest obstacle to human growth."

"Money inspires activity, not honesty."

"People find it easy to justify their frustration in the struggle to manipulate others, but find it hard to justify the struggle for their own growth."

"Sometimes when you feed on another’s word you must eat it like a banana – you peel it first."

"Technology has not advanced because people are starved for instruments to make a better civilization, but because they are starved for entertainment – technology is still mostly a toy factory for grown-ups."

"People have learned to escape reality very well but too often lose their way back."

"The more fortunate people among us would surely think we are civilized, but the less fortunate among us are a reminder that we’re not."

"Just as feelings grow out of ignorance, intuition should grow out of knowledge."

"Americans are simple people with simple interests – The only time they sincerely ask “why” about anything is when they don’t receive their paychecks."

"All things – great, small, good, bad, friend, enemy—should be a lesson, not an obsession."

"There can be danger in stretching the body if it’s not done properly. The same is true with the imagination and the chemistry which may give the imagination elasticity, but the soul gives a direction."

"In order to stay clear of pain, we must know and know why we feel best while having pain."

"Defensive thinkers best defend themselves from knowing who they are."

"Rather than studying the laws of cause and effect, people spend their lives being the effect and running from the cause."

"When making a commitment, make it not to someone, but of someone to yourself."

"One tool that is used most and has the greatest misuse of power is looks, and another tool that is used least and has the least desire for power is wisdom."

"One solution to one problem makes two problems."

"There are opposing forces in all living things. My work reflects this and stirs up a contrast of emotions in the viewer... perception versus annoyance. To the viewer who has reached that level of awareness, my work is no longer abstract, but very real."

"Can someone eat the fruit that comes from the tree of action that grows from the seeds of your mind?"

"The bird of truth would not be able to fly if it weren't for the air of lies we breathe."

"While traveling our separated roads through life, we are also either road signs or potholes on the roads of others."

"If you seek just a little truth, as most, you should not ignore abstract forms, the basis from which all short-lived experiences we call reality springs."

"I hung Baziote's [painting] show with him at Peggy's in 1944. After it was up and we had stood in silence looking at it for a while, I noticed he had turned white. Suddenly he [Baziotes] looked at me and said: 'You're the one I trust; if you tell me the show is no good, I'll take it right down and cancel it.'. You see, at the opposite side of the coin of the abstract expressionist's ambition and of out not giving a damn, was also not knowing whether our pictures were even pictures, let alone whether they were any good.."

"Recently I was at the home of Thomas Hess and he had a painting hanging there and I said to my wife: 'Is that one of my paintings?'. And she said: 'Well, it looks like one of yours [Adolph Gottlieb's] from around 1942'. But then we realized that it wasn't one of my but one of Baziote's paintings. At that time, 1942, the differences in our paintings may have seemed very great, but now [1960] the difference is not so great apparently.. .However, at no point was there ever any sort of a doctrine or a programma or anything that would make a school. I think it was simply a situation in which all of the painters were at that time; they were trying to break away from certain things."