“Why, the question is often asked of me
Do you choose as subjects for painting
So often death, perishing and the grave?
In order to one day live eternally
One must often submit oneself to death.”

“We must ask ourselves these questions as often as we dare. How will the world change if we do not question it?”

“One can choose life, or choose death. Having chosen life, I must live it as it is.”

“I have no fear nor shrinking; I have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me.”

“My poor health was matched, as it often is when one is sick, by my poor mood. A deep melancholy often overtook me, and at times I asked myself whether life was worth the trouble of living.”

“The moon was turned toward me,
Like a platter made of gold,
My death, it almost bored me,
So often was it told.”

“Why must one talk? Often one shouldn't talk, but live in silence. The more one talks, the less the words mean. (Nana Kleinfrankenheim, Vivre Sa Vie)”

“Run mad as often as you choose, but do not faint!”

“We did that often, asking each other questions whose answers we already knew. Perhaps it was so that we would not ask the other questions, the ones whose answers we did not want to know.”

“As for the subject matter in my painting…it is very often an incidental thing in the background, elusive and unclear, that really stirred me.”