52 Quotes by Peter Schjeldahl

I’m absolutely convinced that people cannot look and read at the same time. Not any more than you can kneel and jump at the same time. It’s a completely different physiological setting.

There is an ineffable but fatal difference in attitude between people behaving naturally and people behaving naturally for a camera.

Everybody’s got plants, but most are just growing weeds. The cultivated have greater gardens, finer and gaudier gardens.

I have a total responsibility to the reader. The reader has to trust me and never feel betrayed.

Beauty makes us more like ourselves and more like each other.

There’s art that I would readily buy if I could afford it, and enjoy, but would never write about because it doesn’t seem significant.

A lot of writers and artists are like chefs who eat their own cooking in the kitchen and then deliver an empty plate with assurances that it’s great.