An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it.

Valéry’s remark captures the open-ended nature of artistic creation: a work could always be revised, refined, or reimagined, because the artist’s standards and perceptions keep evolving. What we call a “finished” poem, painting, or composition is often simply the point at which the creator stops—due to fatigue, deadlines, publication, or the recognition that further changes may not improve the result. The line also hints at modernist self-consciousness about process: art is not a fixed object discovered once and for all, but a sequence of decisions and compromises. “Abandonment” underscores the tension between perfectionism and practicality that shapes creative labor.