All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.

From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. A…

No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.

The official designs of the Government, especially its designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage, may be described, I think, as the silent ambassad…

Every great architect is - necessarily - a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.

The average English critic is a don manque, hopelessly parochial when not exaggeratedly teutonophile, over whose desk must surely hang the motto (presumably in…