The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure -- if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to read more

The arts are not just instantaneous pleasure -- if you don't like it, the artist is wrong. I belong to the generation which says if you don't like it, you don't understand and you ought to find out.

Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all read more

Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details.

When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove read more

When Michelangelo finished the painting of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, he spent the rest of his life trying to remove the paint that had poured into his sleeve.

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more read more

Time extracts various values from a painter's work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed read more

In order for the artist to have a world to express he must first be situated in this world, oppressed or oppressing, resigned or rebellious, a man among men.

The choirs left the main tune and soared two octaves past heaven in a descant to rattle the bones and read more

The choirs left the main tune and soared two octaves past heaven in a descant to rattle the bones and surge the heart.

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother's read more

Art is a fruit that grows in man, like a fruit on a plant, or a child in its mother's womb.

Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of read more

Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.