“... backgrounds, which glow agreeably but are best read from one viewpoint and to that extent are self-defeating. The most convincing works of the mid-1930s are those that recall another kind of non-art moving object, the orrery. In 1922, in a boat off Guatemala, Calder had seen ‘a fiery red sunrise on one side and the moon looking like a silver coin on the ...”

“... legal restrictions on stop and search and authorises the police use of weapons in cases other than self-defence. It gives broader prerogatives to the government-appointed prosecutors and limits the role of the judges in conducting investigations. The official goal is to ‘consolidate in a permanent manner the instruments and means available to administrative ...”

“... Eckersberg’s work is always highly considered and well executed; but posterity is ruthlessly self-interested, and inevitably parts of his work plead in vain. Some subjects engage us less fully, less directly. Also, we now give as much attention to the preliminary drawing and the sketch as to the finished work: indeed, ‘finish’ is almost a suspect ...”

“... American but all of whom worked in the United States between 1930 (Jackson Pollock’s haunted self-portrait) and 1979 (Joan Mitchell’s joyful Salut Tom, which pulsates with fluid light). One might suppose that the very term ‘abstract expressionism’ – it was coined in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates writing in the New Yorker about paintings by ...”

“... Bolton and Giuliani’s taunting of Iran, and constant minor scandals of back-stabbing and self-dealing in the family-run White House. All the while, Pence, Priebus and Ryan will be quietly dismantling the federal government.18 ...”

“... as an Angus Suttie teapot is from the dailiness of pouring out a brew. The colossal book in its self-claimed place imposed a ritual of consultation rather than immersion. Open it at random and see what you get, emulating the Early Church practice that looked for guidance from the sortes Virgilianae. ‘Sillystial teen’urgers, all coughing ...”

“... of his trousers, his bare ankles, his mustard-yellow slippers. Cooke had many modes. A melancholic self-portrait from 1954 (not included in this show) recalls the work of the German painter Paula Modersohn-Becker with its intense dark-eyed stare; the woman in The Black Hat from 1970 is Modigliani-ish in the glowing yellow of her skin, the inclination of her ...”

“... a globule of paint. A familiar scene. I don’t attempt another still life. Instead, I return to self-portraits and interiors that I invent in the studio. I use a mirror and the Old Masters as my source material. Sometimes, an element of still life finds its way into a painting – the edge of a table, a plant, a vase – but always in a supporting role. I ...”

“... is some misogyny in this: it’s hard to believe that Hemingway and Pound were docile and self-effacing; in any case, Stein and Beasley had their reasons for being prickly.) The frankness of the account and the timing of its publication – between the scandals of Ulysses in 1922 and the appearance of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Well of ...”

“... out full size but had to be enlarged. Beardsley was always learning.In 1894 he made a block print, Self-Portrait in Bed, in which a doll-like head is tucked between voluminous bedclothes under a great canopy, the bedpost supported by a hermaphrodite satyr. It was a rare direct reference to the delicacy of his health, which now began to decline. ‘I believe I ...”

“... appear strikingly contemporary.Unlike other Parisian institutions from the revolutionary era that self-consciously appropriated royal or religious buildings – the Louvre or the Panthéon, for example – the museum’s contents are in clear conversation with the space they occupy, the former monastery of Saint-Martin-des-Champs. In this temple of ...”

“... slammed in their faces. Indoors, meanwhile, guilt began eating away at the stingy householder’s self-justification, which, if followed by misfortune, might be expiated by the conviction that he or she was the victim of magical vengeance. Even today, my Yorkshire friend’s robustly rational partner admits that her kindness towards their travelling visitor ...”

“... why the world hates us.’ Rebel is based on Morgan’s childhood diaries, and is written in a self-consciously naive style. In the childhood chapters (the action pings back and forth between her new life in London and her old life in the cult) she refers to her parents as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’. The effect is disquieting. As the book goes on, the two ...”

“... of the court.The act of interpretation, as the narrator performs it, requires the abstention of self in several ways:The first time you listened to an interpreter speaking, their voice might sound cold and precise and completely without inflection, but the longer you listened, the more variation you would hear. If a joke was made it was the interpreter’s ...”

“... you don’t only abuse your position professionally and personally, you also alter their sense of self. Men and women new to the industry are incredibly vulnerable to the view and approbation of someone powerful and respected. And their sense of what is and is not appropriate is smashed for their whole professional life. On top of that, there is emotional ...”