Picasso Quotes

“nothing changes from one generation to another except the things seen and the things seen make that generation, that is to say nothing changes in people from one generation to another except the way of seeing and being seen.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“A creator is not in advance of his generation but he is the first of his contemporaries to be conscious of what is happening to his generation.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“he [Picasso] used to say quite often, paper lasts quite as well as paint and after all it all ages together, why not, and he said further, after all, later, no one will see the picture, they will see the legend of the picture, the legend that the picture has created, then it makes no difference if the picture lasts or does not last.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“Let me repeat what history teaches. History teaches.”
― Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein on Picasso.

“The painter does not conceive himself as existing in himself, he conceives himself as a reflection of the objects he has put into his pictures and he lives in the reflections of his pictures, a writer, a serious writer, conceives himself as existing by and in himself, he does not at all live in the reflection of his books, to write he must first of all exist in himself, but for a painter to be able to paint, the painting must first of all be done.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“It is an extraordinary thing but it is true, wars are only a means of publicising the things already accomplished.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“Nature and man are opposed in Spain.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“Cubism is a part of the daily life in Spain, it is in Spanish architecture. The architecture of other countries always follows the line of the landscape . . . but Spanish architecture always cuts the lines of the landscape.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“Spaniards and Americans are not like Europeans, they are not like Orientals, they have something in common, that is they do not need religion or mysticism not to believe in reality as all the world knows it, not even when they see it.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“the composition of each epoch depends upon the way the frequented roads are frequented.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso

“One must not forget that the earth seen from an airplane is more splendid than the earth seen from an automobile. The automobile is the end of progress on the earth, it goes quicker but essentially the landscapes seen from an automobile are the same as the landscapes seen from a carriage, a train, a waggon or in walking. But the earth seen from an airplane is something else. So the twentieth century is not the same as the nineteenth century and it is very interesting knowing that Picasso has never seen the earth from an airplane, that being of the twentieth century he inevitably knew that the earth is not the same as in the nineteenth century, he knew it, he made it, inevitably he made it different and what he made is a thing that now all the world can see.”
― Gertrude Stein, Picasso