“Trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle.”

“When they asked Michelangelo how he made his statue of David he is reported to have said "It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn't look like David."”

“If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn't call it genius. ”

“The greatest artist does not have any conceptWhich a single piece of marble does not itself containWithin its excess, though onlyA hand that obeys the intellect can discover it.”

“Bleed me of art, and there won't be enough liquid left in me to spit! [Michelangelo Buonorotti]”

“The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.”

“I cannot live under pressures from patrons, let alone paint.”

“The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone. ”

“The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.”

“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”