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Creativity Quote by Salvador Dali

"Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality"

About this Quote

Dali is doing what Dali always did best: turning a supposedly humble confession into a flex, and turning art into branding. “Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality” reads like a rejection of the romantic myth that the artist is his work. He’s not denying painting’s importance to culture; he’s denying it the right to contain him. The real artwork, he implies, is the total performance of Salvador Dali: the moustache, the public antics, the cultivated eccentricity, the self-mythology delivered with a straight face.

The word “infinitely” matters. It’s mathematical exaggeration in service of ego, a paradox that both shrinks painting to a speck and makes his personality cosmically large. That’s classic Surrealist logic: scale collapses, reality bends, the statement becomes a dream-claim you can’t fact-check. He’s also taking a shot at the idea of authenticity. If painting is only a tiny piece, then the “real Dali” is elsewhere - in spectacle, desire, publicity, money, scandal, or whatever room the cameras are in.

Context helps: Dali emerged from Surrealism but outgrew (and often betrayed) its collective politics, choosing celebrity and commerce when it suited him. This line defends that pivot. It pre-emptively argues that selling perfume, hobnobbing with elites, or acting like a walking headline isn’t selling out; it’s simply expressing the vast remainder of the self.

Under the charm is a cool warning: if you want the paintings without the persona, you may be asking for the wrong product.

Quote Details

TopicArt
Source
Later attribution: 100 Great Quotes by Salvador Dalí (Farhad Hemmatkhah Kalibar) modern compilationID: RCcGEQAAQBAJ
Text match: 95.00%   Provider: Google Books
Evidence:
Farhad Hemmatkhah Kalibar. “Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.” — Salvador Dalí “We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to ...
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Dali, Salvador. (2026, February 12). Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/painting-is-an-infinitely-minute-part-of-my-1679/

Chicago Style
Dali, Salvador. "Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality." FixQuotes. February 12, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/painting-is-an-infinitely-minute-part-of-my-1679/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality." FixQuotes, 12 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/painting-is-an-infinitely-minute-part-of-my-1679/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.

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Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality
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About the Author

Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 - January 23, 1989) was a Artist from Spain.

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