What do these quotes mean to you?

The cheap answer is: what do they mean to you?

I guess that is part of what language is, a meaning that one person has, given to another, and hopefully, the meaning they get is close enough to the author's so that something gets done! (Aside: Something important, like building a fire, collecting materials for shelter, in olden days, today, building a computer, collecting specimens for study. See how the simpler tasks of the past are infinitely more important than the tasks of today?)

For the Gaugin quote, I think he means that taking a break, or resting, sleeping even (with the eyes closed) is a way for new ideas to be formulated. There is a man named da Vinci (ever hear of him?). Apocryphally, he used to lay in bed in the dark, and stare at a candle lit at the end of his bed. Then, ideas would come into his mind. Granted, this is not necessarily with his eyes closed, but put myself in that situation, I could only stare at the light for so long before I dozed off! So, Gaugin "sees" more with his mind's eye than if he just stared at what was in front of his face. He was a French painter, so maybe he could see more in the world to put on canvass, a specific area, an impression of reality, by seeing these things in dreams, or in trances, than working from reality. I'm not going to comment on my views of Impressionism vs. Realism. That's off topic to the question. But hopefully, you know what I think of that quote now.

For the Degas quote, this goes back to communication. Art is visual communication. Ideas, presence, a felt relationship with the world (you can use that in your paper if you want, the felt relationship) is achieved through "good" art. Some art does not do this, like cubism and abstract art. I will comment on that, since it is now relevant. Impressionism is what I consider good art. Look at Cezanne's skulls. What do you see? Skulls. Well, I also see death, don't you? A skull sitting in glass case of a museum is pretty creepy. Nowadays we study the dead, but in the past, dissections and anatomy were prohibited, maybe to punishment of death. That gets in to grave robbing. See? A whole paragraph, now talking about grave robbers and heresy. (This is how you write papers, basically.)

Thoreau seems to be commenting on the color of the bird, eh? The sky is blue, and the bird is blue. The experience of seeing that bird made a great impression on him. Look up Thoreau's Walden. It is where he goes and lives in a little outhouse next to a lake, with no heat, or other people, and writes stuff down. That's all I have to say about that! Well, once I recently saw a robin or cardinal it was, outside. I don't often see cardinals. It was beautiful... of course, Thoreau says this much more eloquently and heartfelt. But it was beautiful... not as beautiful as women, though... different kind of beauty... natural beauty, in animals.

In a short story, you could find a common theme, probably of art. Society needs to listen more to artists instead of scientists, and doomsday will be averted for another hundred years or so!