Irving Stone Quote

That may be true. But, Theo, there is one thing I cannot understand. You have never sold a single drawing or painting for me; in fact you have never even tried. Now have you? No. Why not? I’ve shown your work to the connoisseurs. They say . . . Oh, the connoisseurs! Vincent shrugged his shoulders. I’m well acquainted with the banalities in which most connoisseurs indulge. Surely, Theo, you must know that their opinions have very little to do with the inherent quality of a piece of work. Well, I shouldn’t say that. Your work is almost salable, but . . . Theo, Theo, those are the identical words you wrote to me about my very first sketches from Etten. They are true, Vincent; you seem constantly on the verge of coming into a superb maturity. I pick up each new sketch eagerly, hoping that at last it has happened. But so far. . . As for being salable or unsalable, interrupted Vincent, knocking out his pipe on the stove, that is an old saw on which I do not intend to blunt my teeth.