Minimalism itself had a very strong iconoclast impulse. You think of the sixties as loose and liberated, but in art it was actually quite the contrary.

Beauty is not a concept. It is the animal joy of the mind.

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

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

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.

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.

Smithson was someone of tremendous significance whose work was not beautiful at all. I think he was an iconoclast.