James Huneker

“The true artist will let his wife starve, his children go barefoot, his mother drudge for his living at seventy, sooner than work at anything but his art.”

“Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race.”

“I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so.”

“A critic is a man who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please him.”

“The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.”

“Great art is an instant arrested in eternity.”

“What is the use of being a genius if you cannot abuse your friends?”

“The new is not true and the true is not new.”

“Criticism is the adventures of the soul among masterpieces.”

“The key to all hearts is disobedience.”

“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.”

“Modern music is as dangerous as narcotics.”

“All authors are egotists, but they are not all bores.”

“The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.”

“Life is a gesture, a wink from the unknown.”