To be an artist, one must . . . never shirk from the truth as he understands it, never withdraw from life

I am an atheist and I consider religions to be a form of collective neurosis. I am not an enemy of the Catholics, as I am not an enemy of the tuberculars, the myopic or the paralytics; you cannot be an enemy of the sick, only their good friend in order to help them cure themselves.

If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait.

The artist must try to raise the level of taste of the masses, not debase himself to the level of unformed and impoverished taste.

Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste.

Every good composition is above all a work of abstraction. All good painters know this. But the painter cannot dispense with subjects altogether without his work suffering impoverishment.

I do not believe in God, yet I believe in Picasso.