It's possible I am the only art critic that a lot of people read. And maybe Robert Hughes, if he's still writing.

The experience of beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. The artist's relation to the object of beauty, how the art makes that happen, is a whole other subject. Beauty is an event. Beauty is something that happens. There is no such thing as a beautiful object or a beautiful woman.

There is an ineffable but fatal difference in attitude between people behaving naturally and people behaving naturally for a camera.

Beauty makes us more like ourselves and more like each other.

I can do pretty good work in various short forms, but anything over 1400 words, I'd be of no use. I like to say I'm a river navigator. I need to see the shore behind the shore.

A lot of writers and artists are like chefs who eat their own cooking in the kitchen and then deliver an empty plate with assurances that it's great.

My problem with political art is not that it's bad art necessarily, but that it is terrible politics.