Have you ever wondered if John Baldessari can draw? How Marina Abramović takes rejection? Or how Larry Gagosian became, well, Larry Gagosian?

Once hidden deep within their own minds, a new book has teased out 100 secrets from the art world’s most influential and elite – aptly titled, 100 Secrets of the Art World. Although it includes serious heavy-weights like the aforementioned names as well as Frieze’s director Victoria Siddall, Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson, and curator and Serpentine Gallery director Hans Ulrich Obrist, it manages to remain light-hearted and approachable. Expect quotes such as, “I read somewhere that one of the most important attributes of a successful art dealer is to be able to keep secrets”, alongside more surprising, serious art world mysteries: “I don’t know how to draw” (Baldessari).

Edited by Thomas Girst and Magnus Resch, the book is a more convenient alternative than having to sell an organ or take on a sugar daddy in order to fund your increasingly extortionate art degree. And it’s available right now, or get a preview here.

100 Secrets of the Art World is published by Koenig Books