"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."
"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."
"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."
"Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them. "
"Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision."
"The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant."
"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad. The madman thinks he is sane; I know I am mad"
"Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing."
Extra love goes to the above photo, which was actually taken by photographer Philippe Halsman. Apparently it took them 28 attempts, six hours, his wife Yvonne and several assistants. One count one, Yvonne holds up the chair. Count two, the assistant get ready with the water and the cats. Count three, assistants throw cats from the right and buckets of water from the left (poor kittehs!) On four, Dali leaps into the air and a millisecond later, Halsman clicks his camera. Twenty eight times. I think this is amazing, what can be achieved pre photoshop! (And RSPCA, clearly...) The photo is 'retouched' - that means covering up the piano strings which suspended the easel and the painting, and getting rid of the stool support, Yvonne's hands and a bit of an assistant on the left. This to me is very impressive work pre computer editing!
Dali and Halsman collaborated a few times, inspired by Harold Edgerton's photo 'Milk Coronet' to explore suspension. First of all they wanted to blow up a chicken (for real), and use milk, but US animal protection laws prevented that, and they thought people might not like milk wasteage. So instead, they used unharmed (ish) cats and water. Awesome.
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