“Ever since my childhood, I was haunted by the search for perfection. An imperfectly cut paper literally made me ill, I would guillotine it. My collages came undone, they became blistered. I then introduced death and decay in my compositions. I reacted by avoiding any precision from one day to another. Instead of cutting the paper, I would tear it with my hands.”

— Hans Arp

Source: 1960s, Jours effeuillés: Poèmes, essaies, souvenirs (1966), p. 431

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Ever since my childhood, I was haunted by the search for perfection. An imperfectly cut paper literally made me ill, I …" by Hans Arp?

Hans Arp 42

Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist 1886–1966

Related quotes

“I have a paper cut from writing my suicide note. [sighs] It's a start…”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

When the Leaves Blow Away (2006), I Still Have a Pony (2007)

“He once cut one of my nightmares out of paper.
I thought it was beautiful, I put it on a record cover.”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002)

“I wouldn't cut you out of my life Clary, any more than I would cut off my right hand and give it to someone as a Valentine's Day gift."
Gross," said Clary. "Must you?"
Simon grinned. "I must.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“T was ever thus from childhood’s hour!
My fondest hopes would not decay:
I never loved a tree or flower
Which was the first to fade away.”

Charles Stuart Calverley (1831–1884) British poet

Disaster; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare:
Oh, ever thus, from childhood’s hour,
I ’ve seen my fondest hopes decay;
I never loved a tree or flower
But ’t was the first to fade away.
- Thomas Moore, The Fire Worshippers, p. 26.

“My pen.’ Funny, I wrote that without noticing. ‘The torch’, ‘the paper’, but ‘my pen’. That shows what writing means to me, I guess. My pen is a pipe from my heart to the paper. It’s about the most important thing I own.”

John Marsden (1950) author

Source: The Dead of Night

“I have a vest. If I had my arms cut off, it would be a jacket.”

Mitch Hedberg (1968–2005) American stand-up comedian

Do You Believe in Gosh?

“Standards are paper. I use paper to wipe my butt every day. That's how much that paper is worth.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Discussing a "fix" in the memcpy() that broke flash, 2010-11-30, Bugzilla, Red Hat, Torvalds, Linus https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=638477#c129,
2010s, 2010

“I would give you my soul in a blackberry pie; and a knife to cut it with.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Disorderly Knights

“One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Black Cat

The Black Cat (1843)

“Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I'll cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.”

Arthur Miller The Crucible

John Proctor
Source: The Crucible (1953)

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Hans Arp 42

Related quotes

Related topics