From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy three, I began to grasp the structure 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 have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty of more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie.
Hokusai
Many years ago I submitted an online bid, believing the case was hopeless, and subsequently found myself proud owner of an original Hokusai Manga Woodblock print.
The print, on tissue-thin paper, is about 160 years old. It cost $35.
Well done! and what an encouraging quote, wonderful.