“In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art.”

Instead of just recording reality, photographs have become the norm for the way things appear to us, thereby changing the very idea of reality and of realism.

To be an artist or a writer is to be this weird thing – a hand worker in an era of mass production.

Kindness, kindness, kindness. I want to make a New Year’s prayer, not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.

If tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, comedy is an experience of underinvolvement, of detachment.

Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.

Societies need to have one illness which becomes identified with evil, and attaches blame to its victims.

Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.

My idea of a writer: someone interested in everything.

Shouting has never made me understand anything.

Fear of sexuality is the new, disease-sponsored register of the universe of fear in which everyone now lives.

I want to be able to be alone, to find it nourishing – not just a waiting.

I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.

A good book is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility what human nature is of what happens in the world. It’s a creator of inwardness.

Self-respect. It would make me lovable. And it’s the secret to good sex.

Art is a form of consciousness.

Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.

Martial arts is for defense. It’s not for attacking. So when people are fighting, always, always, defend.

Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

Art hurts. Art urges voyages – and it is easier to stay at home.

Her beautiful smile, her soft, tender heart; she’s an actual, walking, work of art.

Let the moon teach you the art of being beautiful and lonely at the same time.

The basis of art is change in the universe.

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

Poetry is the art of truth.