On the whole, money does artists much more good than harm. The idea that one benefits from cold water, crusts and debt collectors is now almost extinct, like belief in the reformatory power of flogging.

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.

The hallmark of the minor artist is to be obsessed with style as an end in itself.

But the existence of a cult does not mean that images appropriate to it automatically follow.

Confidence is the prize given to the mediocre

Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to throw out a good deal of the greatest painting and poetry of the nineteenth century. An objective political failure can still work as a model of intellectual affirmation or dissent.

A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.