Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881 - 1973) Spanish artist

Sourced

• "For a long time I limited myself to one color— as a form of discipline."
  • Source: On his blue and rose periods, Picasso on Art

Attributed

• "La inspiración existe, pero tiene que encontrarte trabajando."
  • Translation: "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."

• "God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things."

• "Bad artists copy. Great artists steal."
  • Possibly originally "Los mediocres imitan. Los talentosos, roban." or "Los grandes artistas copian, los genios roban." etc.

• "Los ordenadores son inútiles. Sólo pueden darte respuestas."
  • Translation: "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."

• "Cuando me dicen que soy demasiado viejo para hacer una cosa, procuro hacerla enseguida."
  • Translation: "When they tell me I'm too old to do something, I attempt it immediately."

• "El camino de la juventud lleva toda una vida."
  • Translation: "The path to youth takes a whole life"

• "Genio es personalidad con dos duros de talento."
  • Translation: "Genius is personality with two measures of talent."

• "El arte es una mentira que nos acerca a la verdad."
  • Translation: "The art is a lie that approaches us to the truth."

• "La calidad de un pintor depende de la cantidad de pasado que lleve consigo."
  • Translation: "The quality of a painter depends on the amount of past he takes with him."

• "La pintura es más fuerte que yo, siempre consigue que haga lo que ella quiere."
  • Translation: "Painting is stronger than me, always gets me to do what it wants."

• "Si se sabe exactamente lo que se va a hacer, ¿para qué hacerlo?."
  • Translation: "If one knows exactly what is going to be done, why do it?"

• "Si hubiera una sola verdad, no se podrían hacer cien lienzos sobre un mismo tema."
  • Translation: "If there were only one truth, it wouldn't be possible to do 100 variations on the same theme."

• "Hace falta mucho, mucho tiempo para ser joven."
  • Translation: "It takes a lot, a lot of time to be young."

• "Me gusta vivir pobre... pero con mucho dinero."
  • Translation: "I like to live poor.. but with a lot of money."

• "Un pintor es un hombre que pinta lo que vende. Un artista, en cambio, es un hombre que vende lo que pinta."
  • Translation: "A painter is a man who paints what he sells. An artist, however, is a man that sells what he paints."

• "Yo no busco, yo encuentro."
  • Translation: "I do not search, I find."

• "Yo no evoluciono, yo soy."
  • Translation: "I do not evolve, I am."

• "Yo no digo todo, mas pinto todo."
  • Translation: "I don't say everything, but I paint everything"

• "Yo no pinto las cosas como las veo, yo pinto como las pienso."
  • Translation: "I don't paint what I see, I paint what I think"

• "La pintura no se ha inventado para adornar las habitaciones. La pintura es un arma ofensiva, en la defensa contra el enemigo."
  • Translation: "Art is not invented to decorate rooms. Art is an offensive weapon, to defend against the enemy."

• "Yo no trabajo según la Naturaleza, sino delante de ella, con ella. Un pintor debe observar la Naturaleza, pero jamás confundirla con la pintura."
  • Translation: "I don't work according to nature, but infront and together with it. An artist must observe the nature, but never confuse it with the art."

• "I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn."

• "Mi madre un día me dijo: 'Si te haces soldado, serás General; si te haces monje, terminarás como el Papa.' En cambio, me hize pintor y ahora soy Picasso."
  • Translation: "My mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk you'll end up as the pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."

• "The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world."