36 Surrealism Quotes To Inspire

Surrealism, as an artistic and literary movement, has captivated imaginations since the early 20th century with its dream-like depictions and the exploration of the unconscious mind. The surrealists sought to transcend the ordinary, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. Their work encourages us to see the world through a lens of wonder and possibility, challenging our perceptions and sparking creativity. In this post, we've gathered a selection of 36 thought-provoking surrealism quotes that capture the spirit of this enigmatic movement. These quotes serve as a portal into the surrealist mindset, offering inspiration and insight into the power of unbound creativity. Whether you're an artist, a dreamer, or simply looking to expand your perspective, these quotes will ignite your imagination and inspire you to see beyond the confines of the everyday.

1. “Exit, pursued by a bear.” - William Shakespeare

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

3. “Refusing what Adorno called that 'comfort in the uncomfortable' taken by the fantastic, surrealism seeks to reintegrate man into the universe.” - Michael Richardson

4. “How small these rescued tides appear! Earthly delights flow in torrents. Each object offers paradise.” - André Breton

5. “The clouds were disappearing rapidly, leaving the stars to die. The night dried up.” - André Breton

6. “We have come from all the countries of the world and are going to Saintes-Maries de la Mer. Nomads of the enigma, we gather there each year after having carried our mystery through ordinary countryside and fluid towns. Since we become transformed by our wanderings we are despised by those who stand still and retain a memory of giant serpents and metallic green.” - Raymond Queneau

7. “His thoughts were hemmed in. One can only draw curved lines on the terrestrial sphere which, as they extend, forever meet with themselves. At such intersections we always encounter what we have already seen.” - Raymond Queneau

8. “Now the night's breath responds to the sea, which I can scarcely hear from here, as it reminisces about its shipwrecks.” - Joe Bousquet

9. “May night continue to fall upon the orchestra” - André Breton

10. “In our modern world, this elemental quality of storytelling is denied. We live today in a world in which everything has its place and function and nothing is left out of place. Storytelling is thus at a discount and like everything else in a world ruled by the laws of exchange value, literature is required to submit itself to the requirements of the market and must learn, like any other commodity, to adapt and serve needs that lie outside of itself and its concrete value. It is forced to stand not for itself but for an ideological cause of one sort or another, whether it be political, social or literary. It cannot exist for itself: like everything else it has to be justified. And for this very reason the power of storytelling is automatically devalued. Literature is reduced to the status of complimentary utilitarian functions: as a pastime to provide distraction and entertainment, or as a heightened activity that would claim to explore 'great truths' about the human condition.” - Michael Richardson

11. “There are fairy stories to be written for adults. Stories that are still in a green state.” - André Breton

12. “Surrealism, then, neither aims to subvert realism, as does the fantastic, nor does it try to transcend it. It looks for different means by which to explore reality itself.” - Michael Richardson

13. “What is admirable about the fantastic is that there is no longer anything fantastic: there is only the real.” - André Breton

14. “By giving words the latitude she does, (Marianne) Van Hirtum emphasizes their contagious qualities: they become almost like viruses, with which it is necessary to put oneself in harmony by sympathetic magic if one is not to be overwhelmed. ... What is essential is to become one with the sickness, that is, in the context of language as a whole, to enter into contact with words.” - Michael Richardson

15. “The shifting sands of the world... show how much the surrealists were drawn towards an interrogation of what reality actually is. Unlike fabulists of whatever hue, there is a materiality in surrealist writing that resolutely keeps it, one might say, 'down to earth'.” - Michael Richardson

16. “In the shadows he could just make out a rough, ghostly wall that stood out in the pitch darkness. As if drawn by an irresistible black beacon, he slowly advanced step by step towards that incandescent wall of shale. Far off, the city was vanishing into the air. The fiesta disappeared somewhere beyond his eyelids. The wall was increasing in size, growing amidst a mixture of shadows and sparks. It was a wall of smoke from which sprouted candles that resembled asteroids. In fact, it was not one wall but two. Two tall, crackling walls, silently burning. But it wasn't two walls either. It was, in fact, a street.” - Eugenio Fernandez Granell

17. “Martial (the main character of LOCUS SOLUS) has a very interesting conception of literary beauty: the work must contain nothing real, no observations about the world or the mind, nothing but completely imaginary constructions. These are in themselves ideas from an extrahuman world.” - Pierre Janet

18. “Possible reality [is obtained] by slightly bending physical and chemical laws.” - Marcel Duchamp

19. “I spoke fire, laughed smoke, and madness spilled forth from my inspiration.” - Arthur Holitscher

20. “Several people toss and turn in their sleep, startled by the lines of the newspapers in their dreams, knives out, lights out, lights out, knives out!” - H.C. Artmann

21. “Perhaps my life is nothing but an image of this kind; perhaps I am doomed to retrace my steps under the illusion that I am exploring, doomed to try and learn what I simply should recognize, learning a mere fraction of what I have forgotten.” - André Breton

22. “People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.” - Salvador Dali

23. “Plût au ciel que le lecteur, enhardi et devenu momentanément féroce comme ce qu’il lit, trouve, sans se désorienter, son chemin abrupt et sauvage, à travers les marécages désolés de ces pages sombres et pleines de poison ; car, à moins qu'il n’apporte dans sa lecture une logique rigoureuse et une tension d’esprit égale au moins à sa défiance, les émanations mortelles de ce livre imbiberont son âme comme l’eau le sucre. Il n’est pas bon que tout le monde lise les pages qui vont suivre ; quelques-uns seuls savoureront ce fruit amer sans danger. Par conséquent, âme timide, avant de pénétrer plus loin dans de pareilles landes inexplorées, dirige tes talons en arrière et non en avant. Écoute bien ce que je te dis : dirige tes talons en arrière et non en avant.” - Lautreamont

24. “He wishes he were a skilled poet, it would fit his chosen image perfectly; the poor, tragic, tortured artiste. But he has no talent for words, neither for paints nor music; his uselessness is tremendously total.” - Curtis Ackie

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

26. “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” - André Breton

27. “I couldn’t even picture Mavis’s face anymore. It was sad. She was being erased. I wanted to put my finger on her forehead, but there was nothing there.” - James Tate

28. “Oh incomprehensible pederasts, I shall not heap insults upon your great degradation; I shall not be the one to pour scorn on your infundibuliform anus. It is enough that the shameful and almost incurable maladies which besiege you should bring with them their unfailing punishments.” - Comte de Lautreamont

29. “It is not right that everyone should read the pages which follow; only a few will be able to savour this bitter fruit with impunity. Consequently, shrinking soul, turn on your heels and go back before penetrating further into such uncharted, perilous wastelands. Listen well to what I say: turn on your heels and go back, not forward,[...]” - Comte de Lautreamont

30. “Oh, sheep. I've lost all my sobbing colours.” - Dave McKean

31. “That's what dreams are really like, you know? They're not full of melting clocks or floating roses or people made out of rocks. Most of the time, dreams look just like the normal world. It's your feelings that tell you something's off. Not your mind, not your intellect, not something as obvious as that. The only part of you that really knows what's going on is the part of you that's most a mystery. If that's not Surrealism, I don't know what is.” - Amy Reed

32. “La Courbe de tes yeuxLa courbe de tes yeux fait le tour de mon coeur,Un rond de danse et de douceur,Auréole du temps, berceau nocturne et sûr,Et si je ne sais plus tout ce que j'ai vécuC'est que tes yeux ne m'ont pas toujours vu.Feuilles de jour et mousse de rosée,Roseaux du vent, sourires parfumés,Ailes couvrant le monde de lumière,Bateaux chargés du ciel et de la mer,Chasseurs des bruits et sources des couleurs,Parfums éclos d'une couvée d'auroresQui gît toujours sur la paille des astres,Comme le jour dépend de l'innocenceLe monde entier dépend de tes yeux pursEt tout mon sang coule dans leurs regards.” - Paul Eluard

33. “La terre est bleueLa terre est bleue comme une orangeJamais une erreur les mots ne mentent pasIls ne vous donnent plus à chanterAu tour des baisers de s’entendreLes fous et les amoursElle sa bouche d’allianceTous les secrets tous les souriresEt quels vêtements d’indulgenceÀ la croire toute nue.Les guêpes fleurissent vertL’aube se passe autour du couUn collier de fenêtresDes ailes couvrent les feuillesTu as toutes les joies solairesTout le soleil sur la terreSur les chemins de ta beauté.” - Paul Eluard

34. “[David] Maraniss sees [Barack] Obama as a man with "a moviegoer's or writer's sensibility, where he is both participating and observing himself participating, and views much of the political process as ridiculous or surreal, even as he is deep into it.” - Jane Mayer

35. “Half asleep, he wondered whether that might not have been his happiest day ever, the last, perfect day swelling with the immensity of his secret intent, secret creation—the day before everything changed—the day before he realized, for the first time, yet with absolute finality, just how small his private immensity really was when measured against that other vast, dark, impersonal immensity, call it God, or history, or simply life.” - Olga Grushin

36. “The only word in the Martian language is written phonetically: Kay-ray-kh-kuh-ko-kex.It means whatever you want it to mean.” - Blaise Cendrars