arts

"I love to bring humour into my work. Because comedy is not a huge part of the art world. And big-business film takes itself very seriously."

"No art is any good unless you can feel how it's put together. By and large it's the eye, the hand and if it's any good, you feel the body. Most of the best stuff seems to be a complete gesture, the totality of the artist's body; you can really lean on it."

"I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use."

"The task of art today is to bring chaos into order."

"The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge."

"Poetry is often the art of overhearing yourself say things you didn't know you knew. It is a learned skill to force yourself to articulate your life, your present world or your possibilities for the future."

"I've been called many names like perfectionist, difficult and obsessive. I think it takes obsession, takes searching for the details for any artist to be good."

"The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence we have no standard by which to judge it."

"My life is a monument to procrastination, to the art of putting things off until later, or much later, or possibly never."

"Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed."

"Every artist writes his own autobiography."

"A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author."

"I dug up some old John Buscema 'Conan' comics. Man, when Alfredo Alcala was inking, that was some of the most beautiful black and white comic art ever published. The stories are good, too, though early '70s comics based on Conan is a festival of sexist, racist stereotypes."

"The beginning of a friendship, the fact that two people out of the thousands around them can meet and connect and become friends, seems like a kind of magic to me. But maintaining a friendship requires work. I don't mean that as a bad thing. Good art requires work as well."

"I'm inspired by artists and musicians. There are so many wonderful and talented people in the world. I love discovering new music, new writers, or new art."

"A good mother remembers to serve fruit at breakfast, is always cheerful and never yells, manages not to project her own neuroses and inadequacies onto her children, is an active and beloved community volunteer. She remembers to make play dates, her children's clothes fit, she does art projects with them and enjoys all their games."

"Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art."

"There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature."

"Art is eternal, but life is short."

"Trying to force creativity is never good."