“Yes, I think I am a realist. Because I make what I see. It's only the problem of seeing it. If you can imagine a thing, conjure it up in space - then you can make it, and tout de suite you're a realist. The universe is real but you can't see it. You have to imagine it. Once you imagine it, you can be realistic about reproducing it.”
Question, Léger once called you a realist. How do you feel about this?
1950s - 1960s, interview with Alexander Calder', (1962)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Alexander Calder 41
American artist 1898–1976Related quotes

"Unix and Beyond: An Interview with Ken Thompson," 1999

About the film, The Social Network
The Curious Case of David Fincher (2007)

C'est très bien de copier ce qu'on voit, c'est beaucoup mieux de dessiner ce que l'on ne voit plus que dans son mémoire. C'est une transformation pendant laquelle l'ingéniosité collabore avec la mémoire. Vous ne reproduisez que ce qui vous a frappé, c'est-à-dire le nécessaire.
Quoted in Maurice Sérullaz, L'univers de Degas (H. Scrépel, 1979), p. 13
quotes, undated

“It is not a thing that you can imagine. It only is. After that, there can be no imagining.”
Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Source: 1961 - 1975, Art Talk, conversations with 15 woman artists', (1975), p. 15

“If you can imagine a solution, you can make it happen.”
Source: Disrupt You! (2015), p.104

“Make it on your own if you think you can.
If you see somewhere to go, I understand.”
For Everyman, from For Everyman (1973)