There was an incident, in 1912, which 'gave me a turn,' so to speak: when I brought the 'Nude Descending a Staircase' to the Independants, and they asked me to withdraw it before the opening. — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
Art is a habit-forming drug. Art has absolutely no existence as veracity, as truth. People always speak of it with this great, religious reverence, but why should it be so revered? — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
One is a painter because one wants so-called freedom; one doesn't want to go to the office every morning. — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
Society takes what it wants. The artist himself does not count, because there is no actual existence for the work of art. The work… — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and… — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
I believe that the artist doesn't know what he does. I attach even more importance to the spectator than to the artist. — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
Rational intelligence is dangerous and leads to ratiocination. The painter is a medium who doesn't realize what he is doing. No translation can express… — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
Everything important that I have done can be put into a little suitcase. — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
As soon as we start putting our thoughts into words and sentences everything gets distorted, language is just no damn good—I use it because… — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
The basis for my own work during the years just before coming to America in 1915 was a desire to break up forms -… — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
The curious thing about that moustache and goatee is that when you look at the Mona Lisa it becomes a man. It is not… — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
I am afraid to end up being in need to sell canvases - in other words, to be a society painter. — Marcel Duchamp Copy Share Image
