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A collection that embraces the whole world allows you to consider the whole world. That is what an institution such as the British Museum is for.

What I am out to do is make sure that the Met continues to be the most exciting encyclopedic museum in the world. I want to sustain the vibrancy that makes it exciting to work here, that makes it exciting for visitors. The art remains central.

It's a lovely experience walking around a museum by yourself.

Museums are like the quiet car of the world. It's a place you can come to escape, where there's authenticity, there's uniqueness, there's calm, there's physicality.

One of the brilliant things about Britain is the way you've managed to save old things but to keep using them - that they've not just become museums the way they do in the United States.

A lot of our insights are based on the ways in which people spend time at museums. They're curious, open, interested, and engaging. They want to express themselves and see their own identity refracted through the museum's.

Museums, I think, are becoming more and more aware of how to turn themselves into a must-see spectacle.

There is no reason for me to show my collection in New York, because it's not about craft and technique there.

Give me a museum and I'll fill it.

Museums are good things, places to look and absorb and learn.