Savion Glover Quotes

Within the confines of the lecture hall, no other virtue exists but plain intellectual integrity.

Americans seem sometimes to believe that if you are a thinker you must be a frowning bore, because thinking is so damn serious.

Intellectualism came very late to America. That's why Americans are so proud of it. I found very few real intellectuals in America. But there are so many pseudo-intellectuals.

I love academics, theory and all that. I love and admire that and try to do as much reading as I can.

I have a strong art-history background.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization.

An intellectual is someone who avoids the mundane by lowering his handicap.

Shouldn't a great museum foster serious seeing before all else?

I am probably a pseudo-intellectual.

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people's values.

I don't very much enjoy looking at paintings in general. I know too much about them. I take them apart.

I like art history and art criticism. Leo Steinberg has always been my favorite. He's very original, very accurate and acute.

Scientists and academics in particular focus on detail and the minutiae. When they talk to each other, they usually don't focus on the broad ideas; they don't focus on social interconnectedness. They focus on the task that they're doing.

My job is art curator, not artist. All I have ever wanted to do is immerse myself in art, to enjoy it, to learn about it, to write about it, to talk to others about it.

When I got to Princeton I made a point of attending the Philosophy Club and listening to the lectures, but I didn't get involved in any discussions in those clubs. I guess after the first year, I dropped that.

Intellectuals are too sentimental for me.

When it comes to art and science, people don't like a lot of either. Instead of being open to it, they're closed off about it.

However, I must not indulge in homespun wisdom here before so distinguished an assembly, especially as I am to be followed by a representative of science.

Art needs to be socialised, and you need a lot of context to understand that, and that doesn't mean having read a few art history books.

Isn't it in the nature of intellectuals to be culture critics?

I am an academic, and I have always made it clear that my ultimate home is in the realm of ideas.

I don't worry about whether anyone knows anything about art.

When classical singers or dancers look at cinema with derision, I have half a heart to tell them that they're wrong. They're losing a platform.

I've always done live art history lectures and small documentaries in the past in Australia, on Australian art and art galleries, so I've already done a lot of that.