Robert Hughes

“An ideal museum show would be a mating of priesthood and showbiz.”

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”

“The new is not always the better.”

“I am a completely unreconstructed snob.”

“What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence... and above all the belief in the value of radical invention.”

“One of the virtues of being a critic is that you're not done in by your own piety.”

“A critic's job is to make distinctions. That's the whole point of it.”

“The basic project of art is always to make the world whole and comprehensible... to close the gap between you and everything that is not you, and in this way pass from feeling to meaning.”

“The new job of art is to sit on its ass and tell us how ugly we are.”

“Confidence is the prize given to the mediocre.”

“Drawing is the probity of art.”

“Political correctness is tyranny with a human face.”

“So much of what we call 'culture' is a matter of simply paying attention.”

“To be an art critic is to be a kind of social historian.”

“The art market is a nasty business.”