Man Ray Quotes

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.

If I'd had the nerve, I'd have become a thief or a gangster, but since I didn't, I became a photographer.

I am an economic person; I judge the amount of work involved with the amount of worth attained.

There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.

In the same spirit, when the automobile arrived, there were those that declared the horse to be the most perfect form of locomotion.

I do not photograph nature. I photograph my visions.

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

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.

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.

Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.

The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.

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

The complicated engines manufactured by men demand, if one really wants to use them, much calm. Ever since our love for machines replaced the love we used to have for our fellow man, catastrophes proceed to increase.

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

Quote me as much as you like; as a matter of fact I don't even mind if you misquote me !

My works were designed to amuse, annoy, bewilder, mystify and inspire reflection.

I have never painted a recent picture.

I photograph what I do not wish to paint, and I paint what I do not wish to photograph

Don't put my name on it. These are simply documents I make.

All critics should be assassinated.

Is photography an art? There is no point in trying to find out if it is an art. Art is old-fashioned. We need something else.

Lipstick is the red badge of courage.

I believe in the relation between photography and music; And thats my inspiration.

I am not going to be dictated to by the size of the camera. I use everything from an 8 x 10 to a 35-mm. But I don't use these modern cameras which break down all the time !

Thanks to my effort in the last 40 years, there has been more paper and film wasted.

Oh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon !

I have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor.

I paint when I cannot photograph.

When I saw I was under attack from all sides, I knew I was on the right track.

Dada cannot live in New York. All New York is dada, and will not tolerate a rival.

The tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow.

I would photograph an idea rather than an object, a dream rather than an idea.

Cut out the eye from a photograph of one who has been loved but is seen no more. Attach the eye to the pendulum of a metronome and regulate the weight to suit the tempo desired. Keep going to the limit of endurance. With a hammer well-aimed, try to destroy the whole at a single blow.