Quotes by Man Ray

“I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence.”

“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask how, while others of a more curious nature will ask why. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”

“I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.”

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

“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.”

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

“All critics should be assassinated.”

“To me, a painter, if not the most useful, is the least harmful member of our society.”

“Dont put my name on it. These are simply documents I make.”

Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask how, while others of a more curious nature will ask why. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

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

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.

Nature does not create works of art. It is we, and the faculty of interpretation peculiar to the human mind, that see art.

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.

I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.