“Everything you can imagine is real.”
“Others have seen
what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not”
“Art washes away from
the soul the dust of everyday life.”
“Only put off until
tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”
“There are painters
who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help
of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun”
“The chief enemy of
creativity is good sense.”
“When I was a child
my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you
become a monk, you'll be the pope.' Instead I became a painter and wound up as
Picasso.”
“I am always doing
that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
“What do you think an
artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking,
passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself
completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is
an instrument of war.”
“Bad artists copy.
Good artists steal.”
“Inspiration exists,
but it has to find you working.”
“If I paint a wild
horse, you might not see the horse... but surely you will see the wildness!”
“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”
“It takes a very long
time to become young.”
“There are only two
types of women: goddesses and doormats.”
“There is no abstract
art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces
of reality.”
“I do not seek. I
find.”
“To draw, you must
close your eyes and sing”
“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”
“God is really only
another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no
real style, He just goes on trying other things.”
“Youth has no age. ”
“Painting is just
another way of keeping a diary.”
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime
to paint like a child.”
“We all know that Art
is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that
is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince
others of the truthfulness of his lies.”
“If only we could
pull out our brain and use only our eyes.”
“I'd like to live as
a poor man with lots of money.”
“I paint objects as I
think them, not as I see them.”
“He can who thinks he
can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable
law.”
“We artists are
indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be
almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet
tongue on the dusty floor of my cell.”
“Give me a museum and
I'll fill it.”
“I begin with an idea
and then it becomes something else. ”
“If I don't have red,
I use blue.”
“People want to find
a meaning in everything and everyone. That's the disease of our age...”
“We don't grow older
we grow riper.”
“Action is the
foundational key to all success. ”
“All art is erotic.”
“Every positive value has its price in negative terms... the
genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.”
“You don't make art,
you find it”
“Love is the greatest
refreshment in life”
“The artist is a
receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from
the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web. ”
“Art is never chaste.
It ought to be forbidden to ignorant innocents, never allowed into contact with
those not sufficiently prepared. Yes, art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it
is not art.”
“Art is the
elimination of the unnecessary.”
“The world doesn't
make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?”
“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions.
”
“Everything is a
miracle. It is a miracle that one does not melt in one's bath.”
“Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an
offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.
“Anything new,
anything worth doing, can't be recognized.”
“Painting is stronger
than me, it makes me do it's bidding.”
“Every now and then
one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping
stone to other things.”
“Go and do the things
you can't. That is how you get to do them.”
“Some painters
transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the
sun. ”
“Why do two colors,
put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one
can never learn how to paint.”
“What one does is what counts. Not what one had the
intention of doing.”
“Whatever the source
of emotion that drives me to create, I want to give it a form which has some
connection with the visible world, even if it is only to wage war on that
world....I want my paintings to be able to defend themselves to resist the
invader, just as though there were razor blades on all surfaces so no one could
touch them without cutting his hands.”
“The more technique
you have the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is the
less there is. ”
“It took me a
lifetime.”
“When art critics get
together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get
together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine.”
“What do you think an
artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is
a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even,
if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time he is also a
political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or
delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their
image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a
cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you
so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an
instrument of war.”
“That inspiration
comes, does not depend on me. The only thing I can do is make sure it catches
me working.”
“There is only one way to see things, until someone shows us
how to look at them with different eyes”
“The people who make art their business are mostly
imposters.”
“Whatever You Imagine
Is Real”
“I'm not a developer;
I am.”
“Matisse makes a
drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always
clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is
the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was
the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.”
“Every act of
creation is first of all an act of destruction." ― Pablo Picasso”
“Everybody has the
same energy potential. The average person wastes his in a dozen little ways. I
bring mine to bear on one thing only: my paintings, and everything else is
sacrificed to it...myself included.”
“It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.”
“Learn the rules like
a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
“You have to have an
idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.”
“Art is a lie which
makes us realize the truth.”
“Painting it's a
blind man profession. Painter is painting not what he sees but what he feels.”
“We have a definite
but unknown quantity of experience at our disposal. As soon as the hourglass is
turned, the sand will begin to run out and once it starts, it cannot stop until
it's all gone.”
“Inspiration exists,
but it has to find us working.”
“I am always doing
that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
“Every time I change
wives I should burn the last one. That way I'd be rid of them. They wouldn't be
around to complicate my existence. Maybe, that would bring back my youth, too.
You kill the woman and you wipe out the past she represents.”
“All Children are
Artists”
“Art is not chaste.
Those ill prepared should be allowed no contact with art. Art is dangerous. If
it is chaste, it is not art.”
“I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do
them.”
“Every child is an
artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once she grows up.”
“When I was a child,
my mother said: "If you will be a priest, you will be pope; if you become
a soldier, you will be a general." Instead, I became an artist, and so
became Picasso.”
“Everyone wants to
understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love
the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them?
But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize
above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling
bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to
plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain
them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong
tree.”
“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you
elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought”