There's one great set of tapestries called "The Hunts of Maximillion" at The Louvre in Paris. They showed incredibly realistic scenes in Brussels from around the 1520s. It's a world you could walk into; it has the vividness of an IMAX movie. I remember seeing these probably 20 years ago and just thinking 'My God, this is such a direct representation of the past in all of its complexity and beauty and violence.'
That was my passion, and now I have curators coming into my office on a daily basis, and they're an interesting cast of characters. Some of them can be quite ornery, sometimes it's a herding cats situation. But they each have their passion. And my job is sustaining and supporting their vision.
Is there a particular place in the museum where you have time to think?
The elevator to my office takes me down to the balcony above the great hall. I love just going down to the balcony and watching our visitors coming into the museum. And then sometimes, just at random, walking north, south, east, west, letting my feet take me wherever. I've been here 16 years, you know, this is a place where you always discover something new.