From Andre Breton's "The First Manifesto of Surrealism"
" Among all the many misfortunes to which we are heir, it is only fair to admit that we are allowed the greatest degree of freedom of thought. It is up to us not to misuse it."
"It is perhaps childhood that comes closest to ones 'real life'; childhood beyond which man has at his disposal, aside from his laissez-passer, only a few complimentary tickets; childhood where everything nevertheless conspires to bring about the effrective, risk-free possesion of oneself. Thanks to Surrealism, it seems that opportunity knocks a second time."
From Victor Shklovsky's "Art as Technique"
" Art is thinking in images."
"If we start to examine the general laws of perception, we see that as perception becomes habitual, it becomes automatic. Thus, for example, all of our habits retreat into the area of the unconsciously automatic; if one remembers the sensations of holding a pen or of speaking a foreign language for the first time and compares that with his feeling at performing the action for the ten thousandth time, he will agree with [us]. Such habituation explains the principles by which, in ordinary speech, we leave phrases unfinished and words half expressed. In this process, ideally realized in algrebra, things are replaced by symbols. Complete words are not expressed in rapid speech; their initial sounds are barely percieved.... By this 'algebraic' mentod of thought we apprehend objects only as shapes with imprecise extensions; we do not see them in their entirety but rather recognize them by their main characteristcs... We know what it is by its configuration, but we see only its silhouette.... The object percieved thus...fades and does not leave even a first impression; ultimately even the essence of what it was is forgotten."
"Art exists that one may revoer the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stoney... to impart the sensation of things as they are percieved and not as they are known.... Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important."
" A work is created 'artistically' so that its perception is impeded abd the greatest possible effect is produced through the slowness of the perception. As a result of this lingering, the object is perceived not in its extension in space, but, so to speak, in its continuity."
From Ezra Pound's "A Retrospect"
"What the expert is tired of today the public will be tired of tomorrow"
