The best way to begin is to say: 'Balthus is a painter of whom nothing is known. And now let us have a look at the paintings'.

- Balthus

Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don't know what to say about what I paint, really.

- Balthus

Painting is the passage from the chaos of the emotions to the order of the possible.

- Balthus

I refuse to confide and don't like it when people write about art.

- Balthus

The craft of painting has virtually disappeared. There is hardly anyone left who really possesses it. For evidence one has only to look at the painte…

- Balthus

Painting what I experience, translating what I feel, is a great liberation. But it is also work, self-examination, consciousness, criticism, struggle.

- Balthus

If you speak of beauty, you are at once suspected of...kitsch.

- Balthus

I had only planned to strike the gong violently in order to somehow shake people up and make them more aware. I think I succeeded.

- Balthus

Painting is a source of endless pleasure, but also of great anguish.

- Balthus