Man Ray Quotes - Page 2

Dada cannot live in New York. All New York is dada, and will not tolerate a rival.

I paint what cannot be photographed, something from the imagination... I photograph the things I don't want to paint, things that are already in existence.

Quote me as much as you like; as a matter of fact I don’t even mind if you misquote me !

All critics should be assassinated.

An effort impelled by desire must also have an automatic or subconscious energy to aid its realization.

If the affairs of the world were put in the hands of the screwball artists, it couldn’t be in a worse state than it is now !

In the same spirit, when the automobile arrived, there were those that declared the horse to be the most perfect form of locomotion.

An original is a creation motivated by desire.

A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him.

It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.

Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.

An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.

Speaking of nudes, I have always had a great fondness for this subject, both in my paintings and in my photos, and I must admit, not for purely artistic reasons.

Cut out the eye from a photograph of one who has been loved but is seen no more. Attach the eye to the pendulum of a metronome and regulate the weight to suit the tempo desired. Keep going to the limit of endurance. With a hammer well-aimed, try to destroy the whole at a single blow.

The complicated engines manufactured by men demand, if one really wants to use them, much calm. Ever since our love for machines replaced the love we used to have for our fellow man, catastrophes proceed to increase.

A certain amount of contempt for the material employed to express an idea is indispensable to the purest realization of this idea.

I like contradictions. We have never attained the infinite variety and contradictions that exist in nature. Tomorrow I shall contradict myself. That is the one way I have of asserting my liberty, the real liberty one does not find as a member of society.

Oh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon !

One of the satisfactions of a genius is his will-power and obstinacy.

I have never painted a recent picture.

l photograph what l do not wish to paint and l paint that which l cannot photograph.

I am not going to be dictated to by the size of the camera. I use everything from an 8 x 10 to a 35-mm. But I don't use these modern cameras which break down all the time !

I am an economic person; I judge the amount of work involved with the amount of worth attained.

Thanks to my effort in the last 40 years, there has been more paper and film wasted.

I paint when I cannot photograph.