An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
Marcel DuchampRead
Humor and laughter - not necessarily derogatory derision - are my pet tools. This may come from my general philosophy of never taking the world too seriously - for fear of dying of boredom.
Interpretation
Humor and laughter are essential for coping with life's seriousness and avoiding boredom.
In this quote, Marcel Duchamp emphasizes the importance of humor and laughter as vital tools for navigating life. He suggests that not taking the world too seriously allows us to embrace creativity and joy, preventing the stagnation that can arise from a monotonous and overly serious existence.
In practice
A speaker at a conference about mental health might use this quote to emphasize the value of humor.
An abstract painting need in 50 years by no means look "abstract" any longer.
All this twaddle, the existence of God, atheism, determinism, liberation, societies, death, etc., are pieces of a chess game called language, and they are amusing only if one does not preoccupy oneself with 'winning or losing this game of chess.
I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.
I never finished the 'Large Glass' because, after working on it for eight years, I probably got interested in something else; also, I was tired. It may be that, subconsciously, I never intended to finish it because the word 'finish' implies an acceptance of traditional methods and all the paraphernalia that accompany them.
It's a product of two poles - there's the pole of the one who makes the work, and the pole of the one who looks at it. I give the latter as much importance as the one who makes it.
I became a librarian at the Sainte-Genevieve Library in Paris. I made this gesture to rid myself of a certain milieu, a certain attitude, to have a clean conscience, but also to make a living. I was twenty-five. I had been told that one must make a living, and I believed it.
A man's only as old as the woman he feels.
I'm tired of wasting letters when punctuation will do, period.
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
When I'm up there, I'm just thinking that I've got to make them laugh or they won't show up next time.
I think that comedy really tells you how it is. The other thing about comedy is that - you don't even know if you're failing in drama, but you do know when you're failing in comedy. When you go to a comedy and you don't hear anybody laughing, you know that you've failed.
Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.
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