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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

It’s my duty to sell the ideas. But there’s always a question when it comes to beauty.

Your medium has to be alive to you, no matter what you do.

I find that the mask of the critic is to have distance.