Irving Stone > Quotes

“There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books.”
― Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense

“Talent is cheap; dedication is expensive. It will cost you your life.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“It's so easy to love. The only hard thing is to be loved.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“How difficult it is to be simple.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“It's freezing up here. What did you use to keep warm?"
"Indignation," said Michelangelo. "Best fuel I know. Never burns out.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“First, we think all truth is beautiful, no matter how hideous its face may seem. We accept all of nature, without any repudiation. We believe there is more beauty in a harsh truth than in a pretty lie, more poetry in earthiness than in all the salons of Paris. We think pain is good because it is the most profound of all human feelings. We think sex is beautiful even when portrayed by a harlot and a pimp. We put character above ugliness, pain above prettiness and hard, crude reality above all the wealth in France. We accept life in its entirety without making moral judgments. We think the prostitute is as good as the countess, the concierge as good as the general, the peasant as good as the cabinet minister, for they all fit into the pattern of nature and are woven into the design of life!”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Normal people do not create art.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“There's no love without pain.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“You cannot be firmly certain about anything. You can only have enough courage and strength to do what you consider to be right. Maybe it turns out that was wrong, but still you would have done his, and it is most important.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“I do not know a better cure for mental illness than a book.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Savoir souffrir sans se plaindre, ça c‘est la seule chose pratique, c‘est la grande science, la leçon à apprendre, la solution du problème de la vie.

[Knowing how to suffer without complaining is the only practical thing, it's the great science, the lesson to learn, the solution to the problem of life.]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“On croit que j'imagine — ce n'est pas vrai — je me souviens.

[They say I imagine — it is not true — I remember.]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“I cannot draw a human figure if I don't know the order of his bones, muscles or tendons. Same is that I cannot draw a human face if I don't know what's going on his mind and heart. In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and think about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Loneliness is a kind of prison.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“He had always loved God. In his darkest hours he cried out, "God did not create us to abandon us.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry.”
― Irving Stone

“He had been standing still; for an artist, one of the more painful forms of death.”
― Irving Stone

“Life's not so bad after all. There are not only poison but also antidotes.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Reading has always been the largest and most irreplaceable pleasure for Vincent; reading about other people's successes and failures, joys and sufferings seemed to bury his own failures.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Someday my paintings will be hanging in the Louvre.
[Vincent Van Gogh]”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“The most perfect guide is nature. Continue without fail to draw something every day.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“We...believe that art is religious, because it is one of man's highest aspirations. There is no such thing as pagan art, only good and bad art.”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo

“The paintings that laughed at him merrily from the walls were like nothing he had ever seen or dreamed of. Gone were the flat, thin surfaces. Gone was the sentimental sobriety. Gone was the brown gravy in which Europe had been bathing its pictures for centuries. Here were pictures riotously mad with the sun. With light and air and throbbing vivacity. Paintings of ballet girls backstage, done in primitive reds, greens, and blues thrown next to each other irreverantly. He looked at the signature. Degas.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“After all, the world is still great.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life

“Listen, my friend, all forms that exist in God's universe can be found in the human figure. A man's body and face can tell everything he represents. So how could I ever exhaust my interest in it?”
― Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy

“A person may paint or talk about painting but he cannot do both at the same time.”
― Irving Stone, Lust for Life