“The serious artist must be as open as nature. Nature does not give all of herself in a paragraph. She is rugged and not set apart into discreet categories.”

“The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.”

“I once saw a small child go to an electric light switch as say, "Mamma, can I open the light?" She was using the age-old language of exploration, the language of art. It was a sort of metaphor, but she was not using it as ornamentation.”

“A great spirit has been amongst us, and a great artist is gone.”

“The artist is always beginning. Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.”

“A nation which neglects the perceptions of its artists declines. After a while it ceases to act, and merely survives.There is probably no use in telling this to people who can't see it without being told.”

“When the head of state of family thinks first of gouging out an income, he must perforce do it through small men; and even if they are clever at their job, if one employ such inferior characters in state and family business the tilled fields will go rack swamp and ruin and edged calamities will mount up to the full.... This is the meaning of: A state does not profit by profits - Pound's translation of Confucius”