Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself. Finding one's voice isn't just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos. Any artist knows these truths, no matter how deeply he or she submerges that knowing.

When we are moved by art we are grateful that the artist lived, grateful that he labored in the service of his gifts.

Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.

A gift that cannot be given away ceases to be a gift. The spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation.

What is it about a work of art, even when it is bought and sold in the market, that makes us distinguish it from . . . pure commodities? A work of art is a gift, not a commodity. . . works of art exist simultaneously in two “economies”, a market economy and a gift economy. Only one of these is essential, however: a work of art can survive without the market, but where there is no gift, there is no art.

True citizens are not the audience of their government, nor its consumers; they are its makers.

We forgive when we give up attachment to our wounds.