"

The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation p

"

The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible, to restore it to us in all its glory and its occasional nastiness, not ...more

"

It seems obvious, looking back, that the artists of Weimar Germany and Leninist Russia lived in a much more attenuated landscape of media than ours, a...more

"

What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to...more

"

What does one prefer? An art that struggles to change the social contract, but fails? Or one that seeks to please and amuse, and succeeds?

"

Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to ...more

"

In the Somme valley, the back of language broke. It could no longer carry its former meanings. World War I changed the life of words and images in art...more

"

It is hard to think of any work of art of which one can say 'this saved the life of one Jew, one Vietnamese, one Cambodian'. Specific books, perhaps; ...more