All the beauty in the world

• I especially like it when baffled people ask me questions.I like baffled people. I think they are right to stagger around the Met discombobulated, and more educated people are wrong when they take what they see in stride. p.78
• I am sometimes not sure which is the more remarkable : that life lives up to great paintings, or that great paintings live up to life. p.88 
• The glory of so-called unskiled jobs is that people with a fantastic range of skills and backgrounds work them. White-collar jobs cluster people of similar educations and interests so that most of your co-workers will have somewhat similar talents and minds. A security job doesn't have this problem. When the Met is looking to hire new guards, it posts a notice (formerly in the New York Times, but today online) that is short and to the point, basically "come and interview." p.97
• Of the four of us, I'm the only oddball whobecame a museum guard on purpose. Simon wanted to be a teacher. Blake majored in geology. Lucy holds an MFA in poetry. And there is not a lot of certainty at our table concerning what exactly we're up to in life, even as it's becoming increasingly clear that this is it, this is life. p.127