[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.

[On amassing art for her collection:] My motto was 'Buy a picture a day' and I lived up to it.

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

It is always assumed that Venice is the ideal place for a honeymoon. This is a grave error. To live in Venice or even to visit it means that you fall in love with the city itself. There is nothing left over in your heart for anyone else.

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

If anything can rival Venice in its beauty, it must be its reflection at sunset in the Grand Canal.

I took advice from none but the best. I listened, how I listened! That's how I finally became my own expert.