Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved read more

Art need no longer be an account of past sensations. It can become the direct organization of more highly evolved sensations. It is a question of producing ourselves, not things that enslave us.

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.

The fact that writers will go through so much to remain writers says something, perhaps everything. It would be far read more

The fact that writers will go through so much to remain writers says something, perhaps everything. It would be far easier (and nearly always more profitable) to become a real estate agent.

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack read more

Feminist art is not some tiny creek running off the great river of real art. It is not some crack in an otherwise flawless stone. It is, quite spectacularly I think, art which is not based on the subjugation of one half of the species. It is art which will take the great human themes --love, death, heroism, suffering, history itself --and render them fully human. It may also, though perhaps our imaginations are so mutilated now that we are incapable even of the ambition, introduce a new theme, one as great and as rich as those others --should we call it "joy"?.

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.

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.

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.

Every great work of art has two faces, one toward its own time and one toward the future, toward eternity.

I invent nothing, I rediscover.

I invent nothing, I rediscover.

Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.

Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.