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.

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

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

I'm absolutely convinced that people cannot look and read at the same time. Not any more than you can kneel and jump at the same time. It's a completely different physiological setting.

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

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

There's a double standard between writers and readers. Readers can be unfaithful to writers anytime they like, but writers must never ever be unfaithful to the readers.