It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
-OSCAR WILDE

None of us can every retrieve that innocence before all theory when art knew no need to justify itself, when one did not ask of a work of art what it said because one knew (or thought one knew) what it did. For now to the end of consciousness, we are stuck with the task of defending art. We can only quarrel with one or another means of defense. What is important now is to recover our senses. We must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more.Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, much less to squeezes more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all.

Susan Sontag

Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

Man Ray

I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do - that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse.
Diane Arbus

Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.
Walker Evans

Whether it's an orgy or a cocktail party, I know how to do it. 

Robert Mapplethorpe