Every painting is always two paintings: The one you see, and the one you remember.

I will turn human anatomy into roses and stars and sea. I will dissect the beloveds body in metaphor.

I think that it's important for people to read philosophy and literature is not because I think everyone should be a well-rounded human being, but because it will help you think better about what you are doing.

Reading is a private pursuit; one that takes place behind closed doors.

In effect, painting is the still memory of [the artist's] human motion, and our individual responses to it depend on who we are, on our character, which underlines the simple truth that no person leaves himself behind in order to look at a painting.

It is fascinating to me that when the lists of the great writers are trotted out year after year, you often find lists without a single woman mentioned.

There is no future without a past, because what is to be cannot be imagined except as a form of repetition.