Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness

«Any authentically original idea, presenting itself without ‘known antecedents’, is systematically rejected, toned down, mauled, chewed, rechewed, spewed forth, destroyed, yes, and even worse - reduced to the most monstruous of mediocrities. The excuse offered is always the vulgarity of the vast majority of the public. I insist that this is absolutely false. The public is infinitely superior to the rubbish that is fed to it daily. The masses have always known where to find true poetry. The missunderstanding has come about entirely through those ‘middlemen of culture’ who, with their lofty airs and superior quackings, come between the creator and the public.»

Salvador Dalí, Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness (New York, 1939).