The problem of making artists talk about their work is that when they're making their work the left-brain is shut off. So if you talk to an artist ab….

My problem with political art is not that it's bad art necessarily, but that it is terrible politics. We're talking about a closeted person with mini….

I have a total responsibility to the reader. The reader has to trust me and never feel betrayed. There's a double standard between writers and reader….

The idea of going to school to be an art critic is a very crazy idea. I educated myself in public, which is a very painful way to learn - by writing ….

A lot of writers and artists are like chefs who eat their own cooking in the kitchen and then deliver an empty plate with assurances that it's great.….

There is a sensuousness to language, there's a pace to it. There's a deliciousness to it. I do have pleasure when I'm writing. I mean, I'm aware of p….

The experience of beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. The artist's relation to the object of beauty, how the art makes that happen, is….

I found with poetry that I couldn't keep it up. I was too vulnerable. Maybe I was too aware of the audience. And I had impossibly high standards that….

By this point I have a fairly high degree of confidence in my judgment, in that I don't doubt my sanity; or, even if I do, I don't have to be reassur….