What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.

What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.

Giving jazz the Congressional seal of approval is a little like making Huck Finn an honorary Boy Scout.

Giving jazz the Congressional seal of approval is a little like making Huck Finn an honorary Boy Scout.

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make read more

As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn't make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink read more

You study, you learn, but you guard the original naivete. It has to be within you, as desire for drink is within the drunkard or love is within the lover.

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

I have been no more than a medium, as it were.

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

Nature is inside art as its content, not outside as its model.

Nature is inside art as its content, not outside as its model.

You do have to be fairly selfish when you have a gift. You cannot afford to let too many outside read more

You do have to be fairly selfish when you have a gift. You cannot afford to let too many outside things get in the way.

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.