WIST Quotations

Picasso, Pablo -- “Picasso Speaks: A Statement by the Artist,” interview with Marius de Zayas, The Arts (May 1923)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.

[Todos sabemos que el arte no es verdad. El arte es una mentira que no acerca a la verdad, al menos, a aquella verdad que se nos da para entendar.]

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
“Picasso Speaks: A Statement by the Artist,” interview with Marius de Zayas, The Arts (May 1923)
(Source)

Discussing cubism. Translated in Quote Magazine (21 Sep 1958) as "Art is not truth; art is the lie which makes us see the truth."

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I am always doing things I can’t do. That’s how I get to do them.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

Who Moved My Cheese? calendar, 2002

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

[Los ordenadores son inútiles. Sólo pueden darte respuestas.]

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

The above is a later paraphrase of the original attribution, in William Fifield, "Pablo Picasso: A Composite Interview," The Paris Review (Summer/Fall 1964):

I feel I am nibbling on the edges of this world when I am capable of getting what Picasso means when he says to me -- perfectly straight-facedly -- later of the enormous new mechanical brains or calculating machines: "But they are useless. They can only give you answers." How easy and comforting to take these things for jokes -- boutades!

Fifield later included the comment from Picasso twice in his In Search of Genius (1982):

He said contemptuously: "What good are computers? They can only give you answers."
[ch. 1 "Picasso, Dali, Miro, Graves, and Others"]

I feel I am nibbling on the edges of this when I am capable of getting what Picasso means when he says to me – with a perfectly straight face – of computes: “But they are useless. They can only give you answers.” How easy and comforting to take these things for jokes!
[ch. 2 "Picasso"]

The latter quote (just the words by Picasso) was highlighted in the New York Times review of the book the following year, providing the publicity for the quotation, and versions with "Computers" substituted for "But they" become frequent thereafter.

More discussion of the quotation here: Computers Are Useless. They Can Only Give You Answers – Quote Investigator®.

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

Picasso, Pablo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:52:54 +0000

If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)

On painting objectively. In Saturday Review (1 Sep 1956)

Picasso, Pablo -- Quote Magazine (21 Mar 1965)

Dave — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:04:31 +0000

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
Quote Magazine (21 Mar 1965)

Picasso, Pablo -- Quote Magazine (24 Mar 1957)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
Quote Magazine (24 Mar 1957)

Also trans., "The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' taste."