As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes - and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done

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.

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.

Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.

Rhythm is a perception of time... when drawing, the tiredness of the hand is a rhythm.

Why assume that to look is to see?

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.