Carl Van Vechten

“The trouble with nude dancing is that not everything stops when the music does.”

“Whatever is forbidden is tempting.”

“I belong to that class of persons who, after learning something, immediately want to tell it to somebody else.”

“Individuality is the salt of common life. You may have to live in a crowd, but you do not have to live like it, nor submit to it.”

“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk. There is more passing in their minds than we are aware of.”

“The cat is the only animal which accepts the comforts of domestic life without the obligations.”

“My life is a reading list.”

“Art is the principal source of human pleasure.”

“Freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with champagne... It's a long distance run, you have to make it alone.”

“The past is not a package one can lay away.”

“The concept of 'obscenity' is tested when one dares to look at something that he has an unusual reaction to.”

“To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.”