Alexandra Calinescu

“…I have a feeling of being at home when I am with Sien, a feeling that she gives me my own hearth, that our lives are interwoven. This is a heartfelt, deep feeling, serious, and not without a dark shadow of her gloomy past and mine, as if some evil threatened us, against which we should have to struggle all our lives. At the same time, I feel a great calm and brightness and cheerfulness at the thought of her, and the straight path that is lying before me.”
― Vincent van Gogh, Dear Theo

“Ah, scumpul meu frate, uneori îmi dau atât de bine seama de ceea ce vreau! Pot foarte bine, în viață ca și în pictură, să mă lipsesc de bunul Dumnezeu, dar nu pot, eu, cel suferind, să mă lipsesc de ceva mult mai mare decât mine, care este viața mea: puterea de-a crea. Și dacă, frustrat de această putere din punct de vedere fizic, încerci să zămislești idei în loc de copii, faci parte, totuși, datorită acestui lucru, dintre oameni.”
― Vincent Van Gogh, Dear Theo

“If the emotions are sometimes so strong that one works without knowing one works, when sometimes the strokes come with a continuity and a coherence like words in a speech or a letter, then one must remember that it has not always been so, and that in time to come there will again be hard days, empty of inspiration.

So one must strike while the iron is hot, and put the forged bars on one side.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“For love is something positive, so strong, so real that it is impossible for one who loves to take back that feeling...

So I remain calm and confident through all this, and that influences my work, which attracts me more than ever, just because I feel I shall succeed. Not that I shall become anything extraordinary, but “ordinary,” and then I mean by ordinary, that my work will be sound and reasonable, and will have a right to exist, and will serve to some end. I think that nothing awakens us to the reality of life so much as a true love…”
― Vincent Van Gogh, Ever Yours: The Essential Letters