Lucian Freud

I paint people not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#exactly #happen #how #i #like

I want paint to work as flesh. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#i #paint #want #work

I would wish my portraits to be of the people, not like them. Not having a look of the sitter, being them. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#having #i #like #look #people

Painting is sometimes like those recipes where you do all manner of elaborate things to a duck, and then end up putting it on one side and only using the skin. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#elaborate #end #like #manner #only

Since the model he so faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture... it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#copies #copy #faithfully #going #hung

The model should only serve the very private function for the painter of providing the starting point for his excitement. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#function #his #model #only #painter

The paintings that really excite me have an erotic element or side to them irrespective of subject matter. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#excite #irrespective #matter #me #paintings

There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#being #between #distinction #does #element

When I look at a body it gives me choice of what to put in a painting, what will suit me and what won't. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#choice #gives #i #look #me

A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure. ↗

— Lucian Freud

#being there #entirely #everything #his #must