Quotes from Irving Stone

The best romance is inside marriage; the finest love stories come after the wedding, not before.

A man who has not suffered has nothing to tell with his paintings.

Even if there is endless documentation, it would be impossible to know what a man thought inside his own mind... This is where the novelist's creative imagination has to take over.

The maximum value of art is that it allows the artist to express himself.

Normal people do not create art.

I spend several years trying to get inside the brain and heart of my subjects, listening to the interior monologues in their letters, and when I have to bridge the chasms between the factual evidence, I try to make an intuitive leap through the eyes and motivation of the person I'm writing about.

He had been standing still; for an artist, one of the more painful forms of death.

Story writers say that love is concerned only with young people, and the excitement and glamour of romance end at the altar. How blind they are . The best romance is inside marriage; the finest love stories come after the wedding, not before.

Art is a staple, like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter. Man's spirit grows hungry for art in the same way his stomach growls for food.

There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.

Talent is cheap; dedication is expensive. It will cost you your life.

One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.

It's so easy to love. The only hard thing is to be loved. [Vincent Van Gogh]

How difficult it is to be simple.

It's freezing up here. What did you use to keep warm?" "Indignation," said Michelangelo. "Best fuel I know. Never burns out.

Normal people do not create art.

To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors.

There's no love without pain.

Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones.

You cannot be firmly certain about anything. You can only have enough courage and strength to do what you consider to be right. Maybe it turns out that was wrong, but still you would have done his, and it is most important.

On croit que j'imagine — ce n'est pas vrai — je me souviens. [They say I imagine — it is not true — I remember.]

You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry. [Vincent Van Gogh]

I cannot draw a human figure if I don't know the order of his bones, muscles or tendons. Same is that I cannot draw a human face if I don't know what's going on his mind and heart. In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and think about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist.

Loneliness is a kind of prison. [Vincent Van Gogh]