77 Pablo Picasso Quotes

Pablo Picasso quotes

1. For a long time I limited myself to one colour - as a form of discipline.

2. It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don't care.

3. Art is not made to decorate rooms. It is an offensive weapon in the defense against the enemy.

4. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.

5. Painting isn't an aethetic operation; it's a form of magic designed as mediator between this strange hostile world and us.

6. Los ordenadores son inutiles. Solo pueden darte respuestas.

7. Cuando me dicen que soy demasiado viejo para hacer una cosa, procuro hacerla enseguida.

8. El arte es una mentira que nos acerca a la verdad.

9. El camino de la juventud lleva toda una vida.

10. Genio es personalidad con dos duros de talento.

11. Hace falta mucho, mucho tiempo para ser joven.

12. La calidad de un pintor depende de la cantidad de pasado que lleve consigo.

13. La inspiracion existe, pero tiene que encontrarte trabajando.

14. La pintura es mas fuerte que yo, siempre consigue que haga lo que ella quiere.

15. Me gusta vivir pobre... pero con mucho dinero.

16. Mi madre un dia me dijo: 'Si te haces soldado, seras General; si te haces monje, terminaras como el Papa.' En cambio, me hice pintor y ahora soy Picasso.

17. Si se sabe exactamente lo que se va a hacer, ?para que hacerlo?.

18. Si hubiera una sola verdad, no se podrian hacer cien lienzos sobre un mismo tema.

19. Un pintor es un hombre que pinta lo que vende. Un artista, en cambio, es un hombre que vende lo que pinta.

20. Yo no busco, yo encuentro.

21. Yo no digo todo, mas pinto todo.

22. Yo no evoluciono, yo soy.

23. Yo no pinto las cosas como las veo, yo pinto como las pienso.

24. Yo no trabajo segun la Naturaleza, sino delante de ella, con ella. Un pintor debe observar la Naturaleza, pero jamas confundirla con la pintura.

25. If they took away my paints I'd use pastels. If they took away my pastels I'd use crayons. If they took away my crayons I'd use pencils. If they stripped me naked and threw me in prison I'd spit on my finger and paint on the walls.

26. All I ever made was made for the present and in the hope it will always remain in the present.

27. Drink to me. Drink to my health. You know I can't drink any more.

28. Every child is an artist. It's a challenge to remain an artist when you grow up.

29. 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.

30. Good art bristles with razor blades.

31. Good artists copy. Great artists steal.

32. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

33. I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn.

34. It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

35. North Pole, South Pole.

36. Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.

37. The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

38. Theories are lies that help us to see the truth.

39. There are two kinds of women - goddesses and doormats.

40. When we discovered Cubism, we did not have the aim of discovering Cubism. We only wanted to express that which was within us.

41. The three most astonishing things in the past half-century were The Blues, Cubism and...Polish Vodka.

42. Art is not the application of a canon of beauty but what the instinct and the brain can conceive beyond any canon. When we love a woman we don't start measuring her limbs.

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. If there is something to steal, I steal it!.

46. When we discovered Cubism, we did not have the aim of discovering Cubism. We only wanted to express what was in us.

47. People want to find a 'meaning' in everything and everyone. That's the disease of our age, an age that is anything but practical but believes itself to be more practical than any other age.

48. Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.

49. Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

50. Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.

51. Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.

52. Nature does many things the way I do, but she hides them!

53. I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.

54. There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, thanks to their art and intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

55. Give me a museum and I'll fill it.

56. A friend built a modern house and he suggested that Picasso too should have one built. But, said Picasso, of course not, I want an old house. Imagine, he said, if Michael Angelo would have been pleased if someone had given him a fine piece of Renaissance furniture, not at all.

57. Picasso es pintor, yo tambien; Picasso es espanol, yo tambien; Picasso es comunista, yo tampoco.

1. Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.

2. When I haven't any blue I use red.

3. The Parthenon is really only a farmyard over which someone put a roof; colonades and sculptures were added because there were people in Athens who happened to be working and wanted to express themselves.

4. By amusing myself with all these games, all this nonsense, all these picture puzzles, I became famous... I am only a public entertainer who has understood his time.

5. If I paint a hammer and sickle people may think it is a representation of Communism, but for me it is only a hammer and sickle. I just want to reproduce the objects for what they are, not for what they mean.

6. One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite different.

7. Now there is fame! Of all - hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public - fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation of God by the artist. It is sad. It is true.

8. It takes a long time to become young.

9. 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.

10. You see these thick curtains shut out the daylight: artificial light suits me a great deal better; it's absolutely steady, and much more exciting.

11. The best calculation is the absence of calculation. Once you have attained a certain level of recognition, others generally figure that when you do something, it's for an intelligent reason. So it's really foolish to plot out your movements too carefully in advance. You're better off acting capriciously.

12. The earth doesn't have a housekeeper to do the dusting.

13. God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant, and the cat. He has no real style. He just keeps on trying other things.

14. The more technique you have, the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is, the less there is.

15. If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse... but surely you will see the wildness!

16. There's nothing worse than a brilliant beginning.

17. I like all paintings. I always look at the paintings, good or bad, in barbershops, furniture stores, provincial hotels. I'm like a drinker who needs wine. As long as it is wine, it doesn't matter which wine.

18. We must pick out what is good for us where we can find it.

19. Man doesn't change. He keeps his habits. Instinctively, all those people found the same corner for their kitchen. To build a city, don't men choose the same sites? Under cities you always find other cities; other churches under churches, and other houses under houses.

20. It's insane how many Roman coins are being found! It's as if all Romans had holes in their pockets. They sowed coins wherever they went. Even in the fields. Maybe to grow money . . .