Salvador Dalí, fully Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech

The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.

What is an elegant woman? An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and who has no hair under her arms.

In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.

No masterpiece was ever created by a lazy artist.

The only difference between me and a madman is I'm not mad.

What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.

Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.

Nobody dared to touch them. This was my test regarding the sacred aspect of mustaches.

The only difference between me and the Surrealists is that I am a Surrealist.

When I paint, the ocean [sea] roars. Others merely paddle in their bath.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

Oh, Salvador, Now you know the truth; if you act the genius you will be one.

The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

When I was five years old I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained except the shell. Through the holes in its anatomy one could see the sky. Every time I wish to attain purity I look at the sky through flesh.

It is either easy or impossible.

One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life.

It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.

Young people need plenty of difficulties to achieve something.... If you receive a little money for this, a little money for that, everything becomes mediocre, and collapses ignominiously.

It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.

People love mystery, and that is why they love my paintings.

There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.