We know great art by its effect on us. If we are prepared to look without preconceptions, without defenses, without haste, then art will change us.

A country that has few museums is both materially poor and spiritually poor...Museums, like theaters and libraries, are a means to freedom.

A work of art is great to the extent that to encounter it is to be changed.

All great art is a visual form of prayer.

There is no life without work, anxieties or tensions. Peace is not found in avoiding these but in understanding them and controlling their force.

Again and again I've taken quick glances and then for some reason I've got to sit before a picture waiting and it's opened up like one of those Japanese flowers that you put into water and something I thought wasn't worth more than a casual, respectful glance begins to open up depth after depth of meaning.

Walking rapidly - or even slowly - through a gallery is equivalent to browsing through a bookstore and reading the blurbs.