“The fact that Gene Simmon's son is a manga-ka disturbs me more than whether he's really copying or not.”

“Manga is virtual. Manga is sentiment. Manga is resistance. Manga is bizarre. Manga is pathos. Manga is destruction. Manga is arrogance. Manga is love. Manga is kitsch. Manga is sense of wonder. Manga is … there is no conclusion yet.”

“Catherine wished to discover whether her son were really ill or feigning. But he, worthy son of such a mother, played his part to perfection. She had wept, he had a fever.”

“Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He’s convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.”

“Whether anybody was home meant everything to a house. It was more than a major fact: it was the only fact.The family was the house's soul.”

“He was described as the literary leader of the age, but had never written a book that sold more than three thousand copies.”