“.. he [ Jawlensky ] is the creation of my life, my ultimate goal, my torture.”

“My goal in life is to unite my avocation with my vocation,
As my two eyes make one in sight.”

“I always want to know whether the customers are satisfied; customer satisfaction is, after all, my ultimate goal!”

“I have lost faith in myself and that is why my life has gone to the devil. Why: I have been strict with myself. I love art with a passion so selfless that when I believed that I saw that I would be able to serve it better by abstaining myself, so that another [Jawlensky] could succeed – I did it. And that faith was so great that it has endured, against all the tempests. You, you, in loving me like an imperceptible current, you have destroyed the calm, the serenity of my life. It was difficult but so intact... And the man to whom I have given all: my spirit and my heart, my inspiration and my affection, my cares and my concerns, my energy, my faith and my confidence, to whom I have opened all the treasures of my genius and of my soul, who enjoyed understanding and help – this man [Jawlensky] looks upon me with indifference and prefers kitchen-maids [domestic servant Yelena Neznakomova, who became pregnant, and gave Jawlensky his first child: a son] to me.”

“My goal in life is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared”

“Life is my creation
Is my best friend
Imagination
Is my defense
And I'll keep walking
When skies are grey
Whatever happens was meant that way.”

“Whatever exists, he [the judge] said. Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.”

“My goal has not ever been to change minds, my goal is to open minds.”

“I was taken to see the World Exhibition in Moscow [in 1880]. I found it all very boring. But when I came to a section devoted to art – there were only paintings, and this was the first time of my life [Jawlensky was 16 years old] I had seen paintings – I was so deeply affected that it was a case of Saul becoming Paul. It was the turning point of my life. Even since then art has been my ideal, my holy of holiest, that for which my entire soul and my entire self yearn.”

“May each of my grandsons know, at an early age, what his life's ambition is -- and may he be successful in his pursuit of that goal.”