“To be an artist means never to avert one's eyes.”

“The great Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa said that to be an artist means never to avert your eyes. And that's the hardest thing, because we want to flinch. The artist must go into the white hot center of himself, and our impulse when we get there is to look away and avert our eyes.”

“No one could hear them over the carriage wheels, yet somehow it felt right to whisper. His eyes dropped to her gaping bodice. One nipple was reddened and still moist. He averted his eyes, swallowing. His erection, silly thing, didn’t know the show was over.”

“Her family half carried Terri Weedon back down the royal blue carpet, and the congregation averted its eyes.”

“Unbelievable,” I said when it was done. And Brilliant and Audio crack and That one will be everyone’s breakup song, and so on, because great is never good enough for the artists; they always want to know exactly what you mean and which nanosecond of the song you mean it about.”

“Avert they gaze, heathen scum. The likes of us do not deserve to gaze upon such beauty! Tis better to grind our eyes into the dirt!”