Quotes from Edgar Degas

There is a kind of success that is indistinguishable from panic.

Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.

I want to be famous but unknown!

A painting requires a little mystery, some vagueness, and some fantasy. When you always make your meaning perfectly plain you end up boring people

And even this heart of mine has something artificial. The dancers have sewn it into a bag of pink satin, pink satin slightly faded, like their dancing shoes.

Art is vice. You don't wed it, you rape it.

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.

So that's the telephone? They ring, and you run.

We were created to look at one another, weren't we

Success! Success! The enemy of progress!

Muses work all day long and then at night get together and dance...

C'est vrai. Voilá quelqu'un qui sent comme moi. (It is true. There is someone who feels as I do).

Art critic! Is that a profession? When I think we are stupid enough, we painters, to solicit those people's compliments and to put ourselves into their hands! What shame! Should we even accept that they talk about our work?

My art, what do you want to say about it? Do you think you can explain the merits of a picture to those who do not see them? . . . I can find the best and clearest words to explain my meaning, and I have spoken to the most intelligent people about art, and they have not understood; but among people who understand, words are not necessary, you say humph, he, ha and everything has been said.

Art is vice. You don't marry it legitimately, you rape it.

Everybody has talent at twenty-five. The difficult thing is to have it at fifty.

The creation of a painting takes as much trickery and premeditation as the commitment of a crime.

I have seen some very beautiful things through my anger, and what consoles me a little, is that through my anger I do not stop looking...

I would rather do nothing than do a rough sketch without having looked at anything. My memories will do better.

Art isn't something you marry. It's something you rape.

Rien en art ne doit ressembler à un accident, même le mouvement.

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see

So that's the telephone? They ring, and you run.

You must aim high, not in what you are going to do at some future date, but in what you are going to make yourself do to-day. Otherwise, working is just a waste of time.