Although Picasso (Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, 1881-1973) was in several respects a dreadful human being, he was nonetheless one of the great artists during the past century and remarkably quotable. These are among my personal favorites:
Action is the foundational key to all achievement.
Each child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.
Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.
Good artists copy, great artists steal.
Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
Are we to paint what’s on the face, what’s inside the face, or what’s behind it?
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
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.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
Every positive value has its price in negative terms… the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
SUGGESTED READING
In my opinion, John Richardson is the pre-eminent biographer of Picasso. His works include
A Life of Picasso: The Prodigy, 1881-1906
A Life of Picasso: The Cubist Rebel, 1907-1916
A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932
All three are available in a paperbound edition.