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

With art criticism it's difficult to discuss beauty, to assess it, because there's always the possibility that we're insane.

I have painted enough to have a lot of respect for mediocre painters. It's really hard.

You don't need everybody to agree with you, but you do need a few people. And by this point I have a fairly high degree of confidence in my judgment, in that I don't doubt my sanity; or, even if I do, I don't have to be reassured.

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.

I have a total responsibility to the reader. The reader has to trust me and never feel betrayed.

To me, the greatest artists are almost entirely non-verbal.