There is an appalling amount of mechanical work in the artist's life ... Talent is mysterious, but the qualities that guard, foster, and direct it are not unlike those of a good quartermaster.

the capacity to work feeds on itself and has its own course of development. This is what artists have going for them.

The end of parenthood is implicit in its beginning: separation.

the knowledge of personal failure ... is the invaluable predicate of all honest compassion.

Humility is the daughter of truth.

I never decided at all to be an artist; being an artist seems to have happened to me.

artists often lie behind on the field long after the art combine, the broad-bladed harvester of informed criticism, has mowed, bailed, and stored the crop.