Art is the business of selling fetishes, sacred relics once touched by genius: what the forger offers the gullible buyer is not art, it is "authenticity

Vermeer's skill was in combining few colors, mixing little and using layers of lakes and varnishes to build up the illusion of life

An artist must paint not simply surface light but what is inside, what he sees within his subject

An artist must paint not simply surface light, but what is inside, what he sees within his subject

All I have learned, I learned from books.

You can find hope in despair. Dwell on positive thoughts.

They say that your powers of memory are at their peak when you're 26, and it's all downhill after that.

I tend to go through periods worrying, "Where am I going, I can't see a way out of this," and it becomes quite stressful. But sometimes you have to take a bet on yourself.

The essays are very solipsistic and self-absorbed, I'm totally conscious of that. To me, book writing is fun, and I basically just write about things that are entertaining to myself.

Rank is a great beautifier.

How a little love and good company improves a woman.

I look much more civilized than I actually am.

Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.

The law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.