Everything I've learned about art was (a) because I was actually interested, or (b) I was actually interested in covering my ass because of what I was writing about.

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

Love and fear, the two strongest emotions we have. It all starts with emotion.

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

Rembrandt was way ahead of his time. It's as if he was painting an amateur theatrical, or a professional theatrical, in his studio. It's a kind of performance.

A word is a thought, of course. But any image, including a photograph, may become an instrument of sufficiently lucid cogitation.

All artists and creative people are basically unhappy people. If you were happy, that would mean you were content with the world as it was and why would you ever want to change it?