Leading Surrealist André Breton accused Dalí of defending the "new" and "irrational" in "the Hitler phenomenon", but Dalí quickly rejected this claim, saying, "I am Hitlerian neither in fact nor intention". He insisted that Surrealism could exist in an apolitical context and refused to explicitly denounce fascism. Later in 1934, Dalí was subjected to a "trial", in which he narrowly avoided being expelled from the Surrealist group. In response, Dalí announced that "The difference between the Surrealists and me is that I am a Surrealist."

His lecture, titled Fantômes paranoiaques authentiques, was delivered while wearing a deep-sea diving suit and helmet. He had to have the helmet unscrewed as he gasped for breath, commenting that "I just wanted to show that I was 'plunging deeply' into the human mind."

Lady Gaga wasn't the first person to adorn herself in meat products. Dalí's Dream of Venus Surrealist pavilion featured bizarre sculptures, statues, mermaids, and scantily clad models in costumes made of fresh seafood.

Destino (Spanish for "Destiny") was storyboarded by Salvador Dalí and Disney studio artist John Hench for eight months in 1945 and 1946, but production ceased due to the company's financial woes during World War II. In 1999, Walt Disney's nephew Roy E. Disney, while working on Fantasia 2000, unearthed the dormant project and decided to bring it back to life. In was finally released in 2003, 58 years after its inception.

In the painting, a parade of elephants led by a horse approach St. Anthony. The elephants carry symbolic objects representing temptation: a statue of a nude woman holding her breasts, an obelisk, a building complex confining a nude, disembodied female torso, and a vertical tower.

Dalí lived in France throughout the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939) before leaving for the United States in 1940 where he achieved commercial success. He returned to Spain in 1948.

He was so frightened of grasshoppers as a child that his classmates would throw them at him to torment him. Some critics believe he may have suffered from Ekbom's syndrome, a delusional belief that insects are under one's skin.

This work was a precursor to the phase Dalí dubbed "Nuclear Mysticism", a fusion of Einsteinian physics, classicism and Catholic mysticism. In paintings such as The Madonna of Port Lligat, The Christ of Saint John on the Cross, and The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, Dalí sought to synthesize Christian iconography with images of material disintegration inspired by nuclear physics.

Eggs appear in The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, Fried Egg on the Plate without the Plate, and many other works. He connects the egg to the prenatal and the intrauterine, using it to symbolize hope and love. There were also giant sculptures of eggs in various locations at Dalí's house in Port Lligat.

According to Time magazine, Dalí wrote The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí with a highly detailed, methodical style that layered words the same way as paint. The book opens with the statement: "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily since."