I thought it would be nice to marry Virgil [Thomson] to have a musical background, but I never got far with the project.

[On Venice:] Every hour of the day is a miracle of light. In summer with daybreak the rising sun produces such a tender magic on the water that it nearly breaks one's heart.

Having plenty of time and all the museum's funds at my disposal, I put myself on a regime to buy one picture a day.

I was much more interested in literature than I was in art. I just got into art by mistake.

[When asked how many husbands she had had:] My own, or other people's?

[On John Tunnard:] One day a marvelous man in a highly elaborate tweed coat walked into the gallery. He looked a little like Groucho Marx. He was as animated as a jazz-band leader, which he turned out to be. He showed us his gouaches, which were as musical as Kandinsky's, as delicate as Klee's, and as gay as Miró's.

Venice is not only a city of fantasy and freedom. It is also a city of joy and pleasure.