"Abstract Expressionism - the first American movement to have a worldwide influence - was remarkably short-lived: It heated up after World War II and was all but done for by 1960 (although visit any art school today and you'll find a would-be Willem de Kooning)."

"To dream is to realize that gratitude turns what we have into enough."

"I've always said that an art critic can put aside politics around art."

"Venice is the perfect place for a phase of art to die. No other city on earth embraces entropy quite like this magical floating mall."

"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving oneself, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."

"There must be people who remember World War II and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut."

"There is no fixed physical reality, no single perception of the world, just numerous ways of interpreting world views as dictated by one's nervous system and the specific environment of our planetary existence."

"George W. Bush and Tony Blair had to convince the world that Saddam Hussein represented an imminent threat. Tony Blair lied when he claimed that Iraq could launch a chemical or biological attack within 45 minutes."