193 Quotes by Marcel Duchamp

When cubism began to take a social form, Metzinger was especially talked about. He explained cubism, while Picasso never explained anything. It took a few years to see that not talking was better than talking too much.

There is something like an explosion in the meaning of certain words: they have a greater value than their meaning in the dictionary.

Can works be made which are not 'of art'?

Distortion came first from the fauves, who, in turn, were under the strong influence of primitive art.

Gravity is not controlled physically in us by one of the 5 ordinary senses. We always reduce a gravity experience to an autocognizance, real or imagined, registered inside us in the region of the stomach.

From a purely ethnological point of view, I was not a period-born Dada.

I shy away from the word 'creation.' In the ordinary, social meaning of the word - well, it's very nice, but fundamentally, I don't believe in the creative function of the artist. He's a man like any other.

Tradition is the great misleader because it's too easy to follow what has already been done - even though you may think you're giving it a kick. I was really trying to invent, instead of merely expressing myself.

One is a painter because one wants so-called freedom; one doesn't want to go to the office every morning.