The curious thing about that moustache and goatee is that when you look at the Mona Lisa it becomes a man. It is not a woman disguised as a man; it is a real man, and that was my discovery, without realising it at the time.

I don’t care about the word ‘art’ because it has been so discredited. So I want to get rid of it. There is an unnecessary adoration of ‘art’ today.

Art is like a shipwreck; it's every man for himself.

Chess players are madmen of a certain quality, the way the artist is supposed to be, and isn't, in general.

Possible reality [is obtained] by slightly bending physical and chemical laws.

You know exactly what I think of photography. I would like to see it make people despise painting until something else will make photography unbearable. (In a letter to Alfred Stieglitz)

I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.