Did you catch Roberta Smith and Jerry Saltz speaking at the BU School of Visual Arts Monday night? The room was packed and buzzed with excitement. I came away with much to think about, both as an artist and as an art writer, and how I fit into that model. @BigRedandShiny live-tweeted the event, so head over to their feed for a full recap, but I thought I’d leave you with just a few of my favorite gems that came out of the talk:

Jerry Saltz: “Art first, all else will follow”

Roberta Smith: “You don’t have to be an artist”

JS: “I use Artforum as pornography – I only look at the ads”

JS: “Artists need to dance naked in public”

JS: “[practice] radical vulnerability”

RS: “I never feel that I’m wasting my time when I’m looking at art”

RS: “I don’t see criticism as an academic activity. [It is] a very basic form of self-expression”

RS: “Artists are superfluous once they’ve done the work”

JS: (On topic of the Whitney  Biennial) “Find 7 things you like, or you can’t leave the building”