“The hare of history once more overtakes the tortoise of art.”

“Tortoise steps, slow steps, four steps like a tank with a tail dragging in the sand.Tortoise steps, land based, land locked, dusty like the desert tortoise herself, fenced in, a prisoner on her own reservation -- teaching us the slow art of revolutionary patience.”

“There are more valid facts and details in works of art than there are in history books.”

“That's what writers do, Conroy, we wait for the tortoises to come. We wait for that lady who walks them. That's how art works. It's never a jackrabbit, or a racehorse. It's the tortoises that hold all the secrets. We've got to be patient enough to wait for them.”

“Art is the suitcase of history, carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed, art is memory, art is vaccine.”

“The forms of art reflect the history of man more truthfully than do documents themselves.”