It's not 'natural' to speak well, eloquently, in an interesting, articulate way. People living in groups, families, communes say little - have few verbal means. Eloquence - thinking in words - is a byproduct of solitude, deracination, a heightened painful individuality. In groups, it's more natural to sing, to dance, to pray: given, rather than invented (individual) speech.

This is the beauty that emerges from self-confidence, class confidence. That says, I am not born to please. I am born to be pleased.

The most potent elements in a work of art are, often, its silences.

Photographs shock insofar as they show something novel.

Most people in this society who aren't actively mad are, at best, reformed or potential lunatics.

It is not altogether wrong to say that there is no such thing as a bad photograph - only less interesting, less relevant, less mysterious ones.

Any critic is entitled to wrong judgments, of course. But certain lapses of judgment indicate the radical failure of an entire sensibility.