Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

I have Dalinian thought: the one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.

The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.

There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

I don't do drugs. I am drugs.

What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust.

Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die.

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.

The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.

Let my enemies devour each other.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of it.

Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory.

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Don't bother about being modern. Unfortunately it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.

Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali.

Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

Have no fear of perfection – you'll never reach it.

Have no fear of perfection -- you’ll never reach it.

I dont do drugs. I am drugs.

Great wine requires a mad man to grow the vine a wise man to watch over it a lucid poet to make it and a lover to drink it.

We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.

A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.

It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.

Have no fear of perfection-you'll never reach it.

The reason some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures.

If I'm going to be anything more than average, if anyone is going to remember me, then I need to go further, in art, in life, in everything!

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

It is veneer, rouge, aestheticism, art museums, new theaters, etc. that make America impotent. The good things are football, kindness, and jazz bands.

A great department store, easily reached, open at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established.

I think there is a new awareness in this 21st century that design is as important to where and how we live as it is for museums, concert halls and civic buildings.

I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums.