You know... that a blank wall is an apalling thing to look at. The wall of a museum - a read more

You know... that a blank wall is an apalling thing to look at. The wall of a museum - a canvas - a piece of film - or a guy sitting in front of a typewriter. Then, you start out to do something - that vague thing called creation. The beginning strikes awe within you.

An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason read more

An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.

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.

Art is... a question mark in the minds of those who want to know what's happening.

Art is... a question mark in the minds of those who want to know what's happening.

Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

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.

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?

The studio, a room to which the artist consigns himself for life, is naturally important, not only as workplace, but read more

The studio, a room to which the artist consigns himself for life, is naturally important, not only as workplace, but as a source of inspiration. And it usually manages, one way or another, to turn up in his product.

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.