Aesthetics is to me what ornithology is to birds.

As quoted in: The Art of performance: a critical anthology (E.P. Dutton, 1984), p. 267. Also in: Art Criticism, Volume 1 (Department of Art, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1979), p. 96: "Newman's belief that aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to birds [...] "