If I don't paint for one day, I don't feel well physically or mentally.

- Raphael Soyer

Tolstoy's definition of art is the inverse of the truth; the task of art is to transform not perception into feeling, but feeling into perception.

- Raphael Soyer

Every brush stroke has a certain tension, a certain nervousness. Every brush stroke is, in a sense, some kind of an accident.

- Raphael Soyer

From all that I have seen, I am more than ever convinced that art must communicate, and it must represent, describe and express people, their lives a…

- Raphael Soyer

If art is to survive it must describe and express people, their lives and times.

- Raphael Soyer