The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can read more

The irrepressible spirit that made his playing seem like good conversation is the Rubinstein legacy for pianists, if they can pick up their heads from the keyboard long enough to claim it.

The artist should be a seeing-eye dog for a myopic civilization.

The artist should be a seeing-eye dog for a myopic civilization.

You've gotta be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?

You've gotta be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith read more

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

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

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

Balance is the enemy of art.

Balance is the enemy of art.

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.

Mine was the role of the oilcan in making the machinery clunk around.

Mine was the role of the oilcan in making the machinery clunk around.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.

Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and exposing them to the critic.