"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."

"Why then should I clothe him to make him look ridiculous in the foolish masculine fashions of his time? There is nothing more banal than these statues of recent notabilities, to be seen in every big c…"

"If my modelling is bad, if I make faults in anatomy, if I misinterpret movement, if I am ignorant of the science which animates marble, the critics are right a hundred times. But if my figures are cor…"

"The artist must see the whole, not the parts."

"People have often accused me of having made erotic sculptures. I have never made a sculpture for the sake of the erotic element."