16 Quotes by Wendy Beckett

Eccentric and secret genius that he was, Bosch not only moved the heart, but scandalized it into full awareness. The sinister and monstrous things that he brought forth are the hidden creatures of our inward self-love: he externalizes the ugliness within, and so his misshapen demons have an effect beyond curiosity. We feel a hateful kinship with them. The Ship of Fools is not about other people. It is about us.

In grief, part of the pain comes from our feeling that we should not suffer so - that it is fundamentally alien to our being, this even though we all suffer, and frequently. Yet we reject suffering as a basic human truth, while greeting joy as integral to our very substance.

The dream world, the true freedom of the imagination, does not open to self-conscious manipulation.

All great art is a visual form of prayer.

Looking at art is one way of listening to God.

You are not a saint because you keep the rules and are blameless; you are a saint if you live in the real world, going out and loving the real people God has put into your life.

The experiential test of whether this art is great or good, or minor or abysmal is the effect it has on your own sense of the world and of yourself. Great art changes you.

There is no life without work, anxieties or tensions. Peace is not found in avoiding these but in understanding them and controlling their force.

Walking rapidly – or even slowly – through a gallery is equivalent to browsing through a bookstore and reading the blurbs.