Oh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon !
There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.
I believe in the relation between photography and music; And thats my inspiration.
To create is divine, to reproduce is human.
A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him.
I have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor.
My works were designed to amuse, annoy, bewilder, mystify and inspire reflection.
I do not photograph nature. I photograph my visions.
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.
You don’t ask a writer what typewriter he uses.
If I’d had the nerve, I’d have become a thief or a gangster, but since I didn’t, I became a photographer.
All critics should be assassinated.
Dada cannot live in New York. All New York is dada, and will not tolerate a rival.
The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.
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.
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.
Lipstick is the red badge of courage.
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 !