The role of the painter . . . is to project that which sees itself in him.

- Max Ernst

Woman's nudity is wiser than the philosopher's teachings.

- Max Ernst

Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not …

- Max Ernst

Art has nothing to do with taste. Art is not there to be tasted

- Max Ernst

Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.

- Max Ernst

Who made art history? Not the most reasonable people. The mad men did. If painting is the mirror of a time, it must be mad to have a true image of wh…

- Max Ernst

Every normal human being (and not merely the 'artist') has an inexhaustible store of buried images in his subconscious, it is merely a matter of cour…

- Max Ernst

Painting is neither decorative amusement, nor the plastic invention of felt reality; it must be every time: invention, discovery, revelation.

- Max Ernst

All good ideas arrive by chance.

- Max Ernst