List of Edgar Degas Quotes

Make People's Portraits In Familiar And Typical Attitudes.

A Painting Is Above All A Product Of The Artist's Imagination, It Must Never Be A Copy. If, At A Later Stage, He Wants To Add Two Or Three Touches From Nature, Of Course It Doesn't Spoil Anything.

Do Portraits Of People In Familiar And Typical Attitudes, Above All Give To Their Face The Same Choice Of Expression That One Gives To Their Body.

There Is Too Much Talk And Gossip; Pictures Are Apparently Made, Like Stock-market Prices, By Competition Of People Eager For Profits... All This Traffic Sharpens Our Intelligence And Falsifies Our Judgment.

These Women Of Mine Are Decent, Simple Human Beings Who Have No Other Concern Than That Of Their Physical Condition... It Is As Though One Were Watching Through A Keyhole.

Be Sure To Give The Same Expression To A Person's Face That You Give To His Body.

I Don't Admit That A Woman Draws That Well!

What A Horrible Thing Yellow Is.

I Really Have A Lot Of Stuff In My Head; If Only There Were Insurance Companies For That As There Are For So Many Things.

The Moods Of Sadness That Come Over Anyone Who Takes Up Art... These Dismal Moods Have Very Little Compensation.

I Have Been, Or Seemed, Hard With Everyone Because I Was Carried Away By A Sort Of Brutality Born Of My Distrust In Myself And My Ill-humor. I Have Felt So Badly Equipped, So Soft, In Spite Of The Fact That My Attitude Towards Art Seemed To Me So Just. I Was Disgusted With Everyone, And Especially Myself.

I Would Have Been In Mortal Misery All My Life For Fear My Wife Might Say, "that's A Pretty Little Thing," After I Had Finished A Picture.