"Religious art has sunk to the most disgusting triteness.

People no longer believe; churches are built like barracks, and decorated with saints and virgins fit to make one weep.

The fact is that genius is only the fruit of the social soil; and a great artist can only send up a blaze of the faith of the time he lives in.

For my part, I'm the grandson of a Beauceron peasant.

My father came to Paris to set himself up in business as a marble worker for tombstones and so forth, just at the top of the Rue de la Roquette.