“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had attained some reputation, but nothing before the age of 70 is worth bothering with. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will enter into the secret of things. At 100, I may well have understanding. At 110, everything–every dot, every dash–will live.” — Hokusai