Because I cannot work except in solitude, it is necessary that I live my work and that is impossible except in solitude.

When we did Cubist paintings, our intention was not to produce Cubist paintings but to express what was within us. No one laid down a course of action for us, and our friends the poets followed our endeavour attentively but they never dictated it to us.

Each time I undertake to paint a picture I have a sensation of leaping into space. I never know whether I shall fall on my feet. It is only later that I begin to estimate more exactly the the effect of my work.

The quality of a painter depends on the amount of past he carries with him.

If I were to sign it now, I'd be committing forgery. I'd be putting my 1943 signature on a canvas painted in 1922.

The connoisseur of painting gives only bad advice to the painter. For that reason I have given up trying to judge myself.

Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.