Category: issues

“While the arts sector continues to believe that it is best placed to advocate on its own behalf, and whilst those charged with leading the debate remain wholly unrepresentative of the public, I fear I will always remain slightly at odds with the sector, out of time and out of place. Rather like a Turner in the Louvre.”

“Even though the Spanish authorities in the Forties had declared that art should be a ‘luminous glow’ as opposed to ‘subversive chaos under the name of Still Life’, modern creative impulses none the less found vibrant expression under this regime.”

“Money has won. It had always won in America but now it’s won in England too. So if you put your son’s name down for Eton it’s because you can afford to do that, it’s not because it’s any class-granted right. I have no nostalgia for the class society but I have no very great enthusiasm about the money society.”

“So why don’t these people consider themselves professional artists? No doubt some only do their creative work as a side venture, and make little or no money from it. But it appears that some have trouble wrapping their heads around the idea that their work makes them, by definition, professional artists.”

“The Affordable Care Act made some of its most sweeping reforms in the arenas of health care for women and health care for the self-employed. This means that female freelance musicians are among the Americans whose lives have been most deeply affected by this policy.”

“Within ten to fifteen years, the typical U.S. mall, unless it is completely reinvented, will be a historical anachronism—a sixty-year aberration that no longer meets the public’s needs, the retailers’ needs, or the community’s needs.”

“There has to be a statute of limitations established; and we have to stop being over-precious as well, because this spoiler sensitivity is really revoltingly self-centred. Personally, I’m always asking people about films, and I now have to tell a lie (‘No, I’ll never see it. What happens?’) – just to get the goods.”

“From 15 March anyone taking photographs in Hungary is technically breaking the law if someone wanders into shot, under a new civil code that outlaws taking pictures without the permission of everyone in the photograph.”

“It’s so absurd that Google is still presenting itself as the lovable geek who’s the friend of the young everyman. Don’t kid yourself, kids: Google is the establishment.”

“Being excellent is only part of the scenario, and quick personal advancement is mandatory. Otherwise, all will be lost. All the talent, all the hope, all the achievement. Those things are not meant to speak for themselves.”