Edgar Degas People Quotations

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

It is people's movement that consoles us. If the leaves of a tree did not move, how sad would be the tree - and so should we.

If I were in the government I would have a brigade of policemen assigned to keeping an eye on people who paint landscapes outdoors. Oh, I wouldn't want anyone killed. I'd be satisfied with just a little buckshot to begin with.

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.

I frequently lock myself in my studio. I do not often see the people I love, and in the end I shall suffer for it... painting is one's private life.

Make portraits of people in typical, familiar poses, being sure above all to give their faces the same kind of expression as their bodies.

Make people's portraits in familiar and typical attitudes.

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.

People call me the painter of dancers, but I really wish to capture movement itself.