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.

Of all the arts in which the wise excel, nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

Of all the arts in which the wise excel, nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

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?

Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art.

Anyone who says you can't see a thought simply doesn't know art.

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.

Each of the arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of read more

Each of the arts whose office is to refine, purify, adorn, embellish and grace life is under the patronage of a muse, no god being found worthy to preside over them.

I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt read more

I remember being handed a score composed by Mozart at the age of eleven. What could I say? I felt like de Kooning, who was asked to comment on a certain abstract painting, and answered in the negative. He was then told it was the work of a celebrated monkey. 'That's different. For a monkey, it's terrific.' - "London Magazine", March, 1967.

When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and read more

When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track.

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, read more

Fine art, that exists for itself alone, is art in a final state of impotence. If nobody, including the artist, acknowledges art as a means of knowing the world, then art is relegated to a kind of rumpus room of the mind and the irresponsibility of the artist and the irrelevance of art to actual living becomes part and parcel of the practice of art.