Salvador Dali

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

“My mother's death supervened, and this was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I worshipped her... I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul.”

“-Ustani i hodaj -naređivala je Gala. –Još ni u čemu nisi uspeo. Moraš da pričekaš smrt!”

“Gotovo nikada nismo imali novca i živeli smo tajno obuzeti brigom zbog toga....Sažaljenje bližnjega ubija. Snaga, govorila je Gala, ne leži u tome da se izazove sažaljenje, več postiđenost. Mogli smo da umremo od gladi, niko to nikada ne bi znao.”

“Iskustvo me je naučilo da se čovek, svaki put kada nešto želi da pobedi i u tome ne uspe, razboli. Oni koji gospodare situacijom nisu nikada bolesni, čak i ako je njihov organizam u stvari, svakim danom sve slabiji.”

“„Obaveštavajte me sigurno o svom radu, zasad su vaše slike isuviše zbrkane i nedostaje im pečat ličnosti. Radite! Radite! Treba sačekati razvoj vaših nesumnjivih kvaliteta. Nadam se da ću jednog dana moć da se vama pozabavim“ –pismo Pjera Leba, Pariz,1926”

“...trebalo je da ostarim, a da bih ostario, trebalo je da radim, da se borim, da skupim sve svoje intelektualne i fizičke sange kako bih izišao kao pobednik iz ovog krstaškog rata u koji sam pošao da bih osvojio svoju dušu.”

“...profesori nisu mogli da se odluče da me smatraju’umetnikom’. –On je veoma ozbiljan-govorili su- veoma vešt i uspeva u onome što naumi. Ali, hladan je kao led, u njegovim delima nema emocije, jer on nije ličnost. On je racionalan i, bez sumnje, intelektualac. Za umetnost treba imati srce!”

“Koliko će biti potrebno revolucija, koliko ratova da bismo se vratili onoj izuzetno reakcionarnoj istini da je ’strogost’ prvi uslov svake hijerarhije, i da je stega ustvari kalup oblika.”

“Ja sam tada mislio suprotno: „Požuri da ostariš. Strahovito si zelen i gorak.“ Kako da se oslobodim mladosti koja je u stvari samo beskorisna mana?”

“Moja istraživanja trajala su čitavu godinu i najzad sam zaključio da samo reljef boje, znalački stavljen na platno, može da da oku pravi utisak. To je bio period koji su moji roditelji nazvali „kameno doba“. Upotrebljavao sam kamenje da bih dobio, na primer, veoma blistav oblak. Lepio sam kamenje na platno, a zatim ga bojio. Jedan od mojih najvećih uspeha u ovom žanru je bio zalazak sunca sa kao krv crvenim oblacima. Nebo je bilo prepuno kamenja svih dimenzija, od kojih su neki bili veliki kao pesnica. Ova slika je dugo visila na zidu porodične trpezarije i sećam se da nas je često, u tišini posle večere, iznenađivao šum kamena koji bi, odlepivši se sa slike, padao na pod. Moja majka bi prestala da šije, a otac ju je uvek umirivao rečima: -Nije ništa, to je samo još jedan kamen pao sa neba našeg deteta.”

“Everything alters me, but nothing changes me.”

“Gala Gradiva - 'tista, ki hodi spredaj, 'brezmadežna intuicija' - je imela spet prav. Danes lahko rećem, da izmed vseh mojih prepričanj le dveh ne zmorem razložiti s svojo voljo do moči: eno je znova najdena vera leta 1949, drugo pa, da bo imela Gala glede moje prihodnosti vedno prav.”

“Nietzscheja sem prežvečil in prebavil v treh dneh. Po tem velikem zalogaju mi je ostala samo še ena podrobnost osebnosti tega filozofa, še zadnji oreh, ki ga je bilo treba streti: njegovi brki! Federico Garcia Lorca, ki je bil očaran nad Hitlerjevimi brki, je pozneje izjavil, da "so brki tragična konstanta moškega obraza". Celo z brki sem nameraval preseči Nietzscheja! Moji že ne bodo zamorjeni, katastrofični, obteženi z wagnerjansko glasbo in meglo. Ne! Moji bodo zašiljeni, imperialistični, ultraracianalistični in usmerjeni k nebu, kot vertikalni misticizem, kot španski vertikalni sindikati.”

“La gente debería verse más como sus retratos y menos como en la vida real”

“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.”

“Nuestra época se muere de escepticismo moral y nulidad espiritual. La pereza imaginativa, al entregarse al seudoprogreso mecánico, momentáneo y material del período de posguerra, ha desjerarquizado el espíritu. Lo ha desarmado, deshonrado ante la muerte y la eternidad. La civilización mecánica será destruida por la guerra. La máquina está destinada a derrumbarse y enmohecerse, atascada en los campos de batalla, y las jóvenes y enérgicas masas que la construyeron están condenadas a servir de carne de cañón.”

“El amor, dije yo, se parecía extrañamente a ciertas sensaciones gástricas de los primeros síntomas del mareo, que producían una inquietud y estremecimientos tan delicados que uno no estaba seguro de si estaba enamorado o iba a vomitar.”

“[...] podía saborear con deleite esa voluptuosidad que es todo el lujo del amor y que consiste en poder dirigir descuidadamente la atención y la vista a otra parte, a la vez que se siente la apasionada proximidad del ser único, gracias al cual cada minuto es un trozo de paraíso, pero al cual la perversidad te ordena ignorar, sin dejar de mantenerlo atado como un perro; y ante el cual, sin embargo, estarías dispuesto a arrastrarte con la cobardía y los halagos de un verdadero perro, en cuanto estuvieras en peligro de perder a ese ser amado que hasta aquel punto fingías tratar con el inatento dandismo característico del sentimentalismo morboso.”

“Soytarı olan ben değilim, deliliğini gizlemek için ciddiyet oyunu oynayan, şu aklın mantığın almayacağı ölçüde sinsi, bönlüğünden bile habersiz toplum.”

“It's better to have loved and lost than do forty pounds of laundry a week.”

“I do not understand why, when I ask for grilled lobster in a restaurant, I'm never served a cooked telephone.”

“I am not strange. I am just not normal.”

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

“I want to perceive and understand the hidden powers and laws of things, in order to have them in my power.”

“Hrabia de G., typowy bohater Dalego, zwykł mawiać:bale organizuje się dla tych, których się nie zaprasza. (...) Jajko na talerzu bez talerza na balu bez Dalego - to Dali.”

“Begin by learning to draw and paint like the old masters. After that, you can do as you like; everyone will respect you.”

“When I paint, the Sea RoarsOthers Splash about in the bath”

“So little of what could happen does happen.”

“You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life”

“Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic”

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

“People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other twenty-two in dreams.”

“Everyone should eat hashish, but only once.”

“This grandiose tragedy that we call modern art.”

“Let my enemies devour each other”

“لا تناقش غبياً لأن الناس لن تعرف أيكما الغبي”

“Que hablen de uno, aunque sea bien”

“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.”

“Let the labyrinth of wrinkles be furrowed in my brow with the red-hot iron of my own life, let my hair whiten and my step become vacillating, on condition that I can save the intelligence of my soul - let my unformed childhood soul, as it ages, assume the rational and esthetic forms of an architecture, let me learn just everything that others cannot teach me, what only life would be capable of marking deeply in my skin!”

“I dedicate this novel to Gala, who was constantly by my side while I was writing it, who was the good fairy of my equilibrium, who banished the salamanders of my doubts and strengthened the lions of certainties...”

“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.”

“New skin, a new land! And a land of liberty, if that is possible! I chose the geology of a land that was new to me, and that was young, virgin, and without drama, that of America. I traveled in America, but instead of romantically and directly rubbing the snakeskin of my body against the asperities of its terrain, I preferred to peel protected within the armor of the gleaming black crustacean of a Cadillac which I gave Gala as a present. Nevertheless all the men who admire and the women who are in love with my old skin will easily be able to find its remnants in shredded pieces of various sizes scattered to the winds along the roads from New York via Pittsburgh to California. I have peeled with every wind; pieces of my skin have remained caught here and there along my way, scattered through that "promised land" which is America; certain pieces of this skin have remained hanging in the spiny vegetation of the Arizona desert, along the trails where I galloped on horseback, where I got rid of all my former Aristotelian "planetary notions." Other pieces of my skin have remained spread out like tablecloths without food on the summits of the rocky masses by which one reaches the Salt Lake, in which the hard passion of the Mormons saluted in me the European phantom of Apollinaire. Still other pieces have remained suspended along the "antediluvian" bridge of San Francisco, where I saw in passing the ten thousand most beautiful virgins in America, completely naked, standing in line on each side of me as I passed, like two rows of organ-pipes of angelic flesh with cowrie-shell sea vulvas.”

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

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

“One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.”