I am working in Paris. I cannot for a single day get the thought out o — Marc Chagall

"If I werent a Jew (in the sense in which I use the word) then I wouldnt be an artist, or at least not the one I am now."

"Now at least artists have the upper hand in the town (Vitebsk). They get totally engrossed in their disputes about art (between constructivists and suprematists), I am utterly exhausted and dream of abroad.. .After all, there is no more suitable place for artists to be (for me, at least) than at the easel, and I dream of being able to devote myself exclusively to my pictures. Of course, little by little one paints something, but its not the real thing. (Chagall was director of the Art School of Vitebsk, including many conflicts)"

"My works are dear to me, each in its own way, I shall have to answer for them on the Day of Judgement. God alone knows whether I shall ever see them again. Quite apart from the money which I was going to receive for their sale there (exhibition in Gallery Der Sturm, Berlin June-July, 1914) and it is no small sum.."

"The sun has only ever shone for me in France (it certainly did that!). I have got used to beating the streets of Paris, happy beyond words dreaming of a life 125 years long - with the Louvre radiant in the distance. (Chagall couldnt go back to Paris because of the outbreak of the first World War in 1914). Having ended up in the Russian provinces, >."

"Or is all this fuss actually important for >? Oh, no, never. If things only ever originated as a result of such competition (between subject- and subjectless art) , it wouldnt be worth living among them, like an accidental, capricious toy. Clearly there is a greater, a more serene and more modest power, but we are either too lazy to live by its laws, or we have no time, or it "hurts too much"."

"For me, Christ has always symbolized the true type of the Jewish martyr. That is how I understood him in 1908 when I used this figure for the first time.. .It was under the influence of the pogroms. Then I painted and drew him in pictures about ghettos, surrounded by Jewish troubles, by Jewish mothers, running terrified with little children in their arms."