35 Quotes by M.C. Escher

Originality is merely an illusion.

A woman once rang me up and said, ‘Mr. Escher, I am absolutely crazy about your work. In your print -Reptiles- you have given such a striking illustration of reincarnation.’ I replied, ‘Madam, if that’s the way you see it, so be it.’

It is human nature to want to exchange ideas, and I believe that, at bottom, every artist wants no more than to tell the world what he has to say.

I am always wandering around in enigmas. There are young people who constantly come to tell me: you, too, are making Op Art. I haven’t the slightest idea what that is, Op Art. I’ve been doing this work for thirty years now.

I am a graphic artist heart and soul, though I find the term artist rather embarrassing.

What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness.

I think I have never yet done any work with the aim of symbolizing a particular idea, but the fact that a symbol is sometimes discovered or remarked upon is valuable for me because it makes it easier to accept the inexplicable nature of my hobbies, which constantly preoccupy me.

I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well.

To have peace with this peculiar life; to accept what we do not understand; to wait calmly for what awaits us, you have to be wiser than I am.