Lynn Cullen

“To say that he 'nailed a subject's soul to the canvas' makes the assumption that we persons, as well as artists, can see one another's souls.Maybe we do. Maybe we all have the ability to perceive another's soul, and do so every day, only we take it for granted, and don't even know it when we're doing it. We call it knowing someone's 'character' or 'personality.”

“Desire inspires us to be our very best.”

“Tell me, who is behind a great woman? That's right. No one. She has to get there herself.”

“First you must believe there is a soul.... If by a soul one means the creature who lives within each of us, a creature born loving, born joyful, but who with each worldly blow shrinks more deeply into its shell until at last, the poor desiccated thing is unrecognizable even to its own self, yes. I do.”

“Greed and our food supply. It is greed that compels dairymen to skim every bit of goodness from milk to make other products and then to fill the swill left with chalk and sell it at profit. Greed tempts butchers to grind up the meat of sick cows with well ones and mix it into sausage along with offal and dung to extend the amount of 'meat' that they can sell. Greed motivates bakers to use flour devoid of the wheat germ and the nutritious outer husk and to add alum and chlorine to make bread look whiter and to cook faster. Americans are being poisoned, all in the name of profit, producing a weak-minded race of people who are given to lust and desire.”

“I find that the thoughts spoken between the lines are the most important parts of a poem or story.”

“Pay attention to fate.... It will always have the last word.”

“It is my belief that marriage is made holy by two souls in communion, not by the order of the law.”

“Whenever you see this much wealth, assume that someone dirtied his hands. Fortunes don't come to saints.”

“Magdalena pulls me away by the arm. “I am the stronger one of Titus and I,” she says over the marketplace din. “Woman are always the stronger sex.” She smiles to herself. “The trick is not appearing to be so.”

“I had come to realize that you must do what you must for your children, even it if called for the sacrifice of your very soul.”

“In painting, three things must be considered - the position of the viewer, the position of the object viewed, and the position of the light that illuminates the object.”