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 think being interested is really what being civilized is about. I mean, you have to be conscious of everything.

The aesthetic experience has to be given. And beauty is a regular experience of every person - every person who is not clinically depressed!

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.

You could say that clinical depression is an incapacity to aesthetic response. It's like there's a constant agreement within ourselves, a kind of mutual understanding between ourselves and the world.

For Rembrandt, reality is role-playing.... Everyone is portrayed in relation to a social hierarchy.

It's my duty to sell the ideas. But there's always a question when it comes to beauty.