“All that's really required is that anything the state does in relation to the arts is laid on the table where we can see it.”

“This is a great trap of the twentieth century: on one side is the logic of the market, where we like to imagine we all start out as individuals who don't owe each other anything. On the other is the logic of the state, where we all begin with a debt we can never truly pay. We are constantly told that they are opposites, and that between them they contain the only real human possibilities. But it's a false dichotomy. States created markets. Markets require states. Neither could continue without the other, at least, in anything like the forms we would rec­ognize today.”

“It's hard to make something that's interesting. It's really, really hard. It's like a law of nature, a law of aerodynamics, that anything that's written or anything that's created wants to be mediocre. The natural state of all writing is mediocrity... So what it takes to make anything more than mediocre is such an act of will...”

“Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty. Then, and then only, does it comes into existence.”

“If we keep him for ourselves, we can do anything we want with him!''OH, REALLY?! Does that include baking him in a quiche?!''NO, IT DOES NOT INCLUDE THAT! IT INCLUDES EATING HIM RAW!''That's too bad. He would've made a fine pastry filling.”

“ We don't believe anything unless we can see it. That's just life.”