“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.”

“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.”

“Every positive value has its price in negative terms... the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." ― Pablo Picasso”

“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. ”

“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.”

“Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not melt in one's bath.”

“You don't make art, you find it”

“Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. ”

“We don't grow older we grow riper.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Anything new, anything worth doing, can't be recognized.”

“Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.”

“The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”

“Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.

“You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.”

“Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun. ”

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

“Painting is stronger than me, it makes me do it's bidding.”

“It took me a lifetime.”

“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Sex and art are the same thing.”

“The more technique you have the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is the less there is. ”

“Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?”

“The people who make art their business are mostly imposters.”

“Painting it's a blind man profession. Painter is painting not what he sees but what he feels.”

“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.”

“It is your work in life that is the ultimate seduction.”

“In art intentions are not sufficient and, as we say in Spanish, love must be proved by deeds and not by reasons. What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.”

“The fact that for a long time Cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it means nothing. I do not read English, an English book is a blank book to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist. Why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?" -Pablo Picasso.”

“The older you get, the stronger the wind gets — and it's always in your face.”

“To find is the thing.”

“I'm not a developer; I am.”

“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.”

“When I was a kid I drew like Michelangelo. It took me years to learn to draw like a kid.”

“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.”

“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.”

“My hand tells me what I’m thinking.”

“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.”

“Art is a lie that reveals the truth.”

“An idea is a point of departure and no more. As soon as you elaborate it, it becomes transformed by thought”

“We have learned nothing in twelve thousand years. (Upon exiting the Lascaux cave, France)”

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”

“You have to know how to be vulgar. Paint with four-letter words.”

“It takes a long time to grow young.”

“My mother said to me, “If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.” Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.”

“I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them.”