The problem of making artists talk about their work is that when they're making their work the left-brain is shut off. So if you talk to an artist about it, you're talking to someone who wasn't there. It's hopeless.

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

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

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

Artists are sometimes in a position to tell the truth, but they're positioned as a Cassandra. They're gifted with impeccable prophecy and the assurance of never being listened to.

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

Artists are expected to talk about their work but writers aren't expected to talk about their writing.