"He had been standing still; for an artist, one of the more painful forms of death.
"
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"The most perfect guide is nature. Continue without fail to draw something every day."
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry."
— Irving Stone

"Drawing is the poet's written line, set down to see if there be a story worth telling, a truth worth revealing."
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"He had always loved God. In his darkest hours he cried out, "God did not create us to abandon us.""
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"...and rout the magical mystical moonlight with fierce proof of its own greater power to light, to heat, to make everything known."
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"One should not become an artist because he can, but because he must. It is only for those who would be miserable without it."
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"We...believe that art is religious, because it is one of man's highest aspirations. There is no such thing as pagan art, only good and bad art."
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"From the biography of Freud, by Irving Stone, said by Freud's fiance after he teased her for being sweet, "Beware of truly sweet people. They have will of iron.""
— Irving Stone

"To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors."
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"Listen, my friend, all forms that exist in God's universe can be found in the human figure. A man's body and face can tell everything he represents. So how could I ever exhaust my interest in it?"
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)

"In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and thing about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist."
— Irving Stone (Lust for Life)

"They had painted in a grand rush to keep intact the purity of their first impression, the mood in which the motif had been conceived."
— Irving Stone (Lust for Life)

"The paintings that laughed at him merrily from the walls were like nothing he had ever seen or dreamed of. Gone were the flat, thin surfaces. Gone was the sentimental sobriety. Gone was the brown gravy in which Europe had been bathing its pictures for centuries. Here were pictures riotously mad with the sun. With light and air and throbbing vivacity. Paintings of ballet girls backstage, done in primitive reds, greens, and blues thrown next to each other irreverantly. He looked at the signature. Degas."
— Irving Stone (Lust for Life)

"There seemed to be that same fierce quest after truth, the same unafraid penetration, the same feeling that character is beauty, no matter how sordid it may appear."
— Irving Stone (Lust for Life)

"Art is amoral; so is life. For me there are no obscene pictures or books; there are only poorly conceived and poorly executed ones."
— Irving Stone (Lust for Life)

"First, we think all truth beautiful, no matter how hideous its face may seem. We accept all of nature, without any repudiation. We believe there is more beauty in a harsh truth than in a pretty lie, more poetry in earthiness than in all the salons of Paris. We think pain good, because it is the most profound of all human feelings. We think sex beautiful, even when portrayed by a harlot and a pimp. We put character above ugliness, pain above prettiness, and hard, crude reality above all the wealth in France. We accept life in its entirety, without making moral judgments. We think the prostitute as good as the countess, the concierge as good as the general, the peasant as good as the cabinet minister, for they all fit into the pattern of nature, and are woven into the design of life!"
— Irving Stone (Lust for Life)

"He had never believed that spirituality had to be anemic or aesthetic.
"
— Irving Stone (The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Biographical Novel of Michelangelo)