Quotes from Edvard Munch

It was always my intention that The Frieze should be housed in a room which would provide a suitable architectural frame for it.

I painted the picture, and in the colors the rhythm of the music quivers. I painted the colors I saw.

I build a kind of wall between myself and t he model so that I can paint in peace behind it. Otherwise, she might say something that confuses and distracts me.

In my childhood I always felt that I was treated unjustly, without a mother, sick, and with the threat of punishment in Hell hanging over my head

All art, literature, and music must be born in your heart's blood. Art is your heart's blood.

Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul.

I sense a scream passing through nature. I painted ... the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked.

Without fear and illness, I could never have accomplished all I have

When I paint a person, his enemies always find the portrait a good likeness.

A person himself believes that all the other portraits are good likenesses except the one of himself.

My art is rooted in a single reflection: why am I not as others are? ... my art gives meaning to my life.

Through my art I have tried to explain my life and its meaning. I have also intended to help others to clarify their lives.

Colors live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied to the canvas.

Disease, insanity, and death were the angels that attended my cradle, and since then have followed me throughout my life.

Oil-painting is a developed technique. Why go backwards?

By painting colors and lines and forms seen in quickened mood I was seeking to make this mood vibrate as a phonograph does. This was the origin of the paintings in The Frieze of Life.

My breakthrough came very late in life, really only starting when I was 50...I had the strength for new deeds and ideas.

Without fear and disease, my life would be like a boat without oars.

I learned early about the misery and dangers of life, and about the afterlife, about the external punishment which awaited the children of sin in Hell.

Nature is not only what is visible to the eye—it also shows the inner images of the soul—the images on the reverse side of the eyes.

Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and they have followed me throughout my life.

For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.

I have no fear of photography as long as it cannot be used in heaven and in hell.

Disease, insanity, and death were the angels that attended my cradle, and since then have followed me throughout my life.