Vanished Splendors Quotes

“Very early on, I understood that I secretly and mysteriously belonged to the world of cats.”
― Balthus, Vanished Splendors: A Memoir

“One day in Rome, I found a little cat in the Villa Medicis gardens. He seemed completely inoffensive, but caused an incredible mess at Chassy by turning out to be tyrannical and nasty. He never let any of the other cats eat, and fought with all of them.”
― Balthus, Vanished Splendors: A Memoir

“Personality cults by contemporary painters infuriate me. One must seek the opposite, fade away more every day, and find exactingness only in the act of painting, and always forget oneself.”
― Balthus, Vanished Splendors: A Memoir