"Early-twentieth-century abstraction is art's version of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It's the idea that changed everything everywhere: quickly, decisively, for good."

"Willem de Kooning is generally credited for coming out of the painterly gates strong in the forties, revolutionizing art and abstraction and reaching incredible heights by the early fifties, and then tailing off."

"The richness of existence is found in simple harmonies, not superfluous splendors. Such is the immutable nature of understanding."

"It is a unyielding truth that knowledge is the gathering of scattered facts; wisdom is the synthesis of lived experience — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Auction houses run a rigged game. They know exactly how many people will be bidding on a work and exactly who they are. In a gallery, works of art need only one person who wants to pay for them."

"Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth."

"Music is really something that makes people whole."

"Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize."