“To talk of a modern work of art enduring is sillier than talking of the eternal values of Standard Oil.”
“Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal.”
“Artists don't talk about art. Artists talk about work. If I have anything to say to young writers, it's stop thinking of writing as art. Think of it as work.”
“In my low periods, I wondered what was the point of creating art. For whom? Are we animating God? Are we talking to ourselves? And what was the ultimate goal? To have one's work caged in art's great zoos - the Modern, the Met, the Louvre?”
“Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about.”
“It’s easier and sociabler to talk technique than it is to make art.”