Claude Monet

For a long time, I have hoped for better days, but alas, today it is necessary for me to lose all hope. My poor wife suffers more and more. I do not think it is possible to be any weaker.

It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.

To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at.

As for myself, I met with as much success as I ever could have wanted. In other words, I was enthusiastically run-down by every critic of the period.

Most people think I paint fast. I paint very slowly.

No, I'm not a great painter. Neither am I a great poet.

For me, the subject is of secondary importance: I want to convey what is alive between me and the subject.

What could be said about me...a man to whom only his painting matters? And of course his garden and his flowers as well.

I work at my garden all the time and with love. What I need most are flowers, always. My heart is forever in Giverny.

My work is always better when I am alone and follow my own impressions.