Norman Rockwell Quotes

Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.

A face in the picture would bother me, so I’d rub it out with the turpentine and do it over.

If a picture wasn’t going very well I’d put a puppy dog in it, always a mongrel, you know, never one of the full bred puppies. And then I’d put a bandage on its foot… I liked it when I did it, but now I’m sick of it.

The Balopticon [a machine that projects photos on canvas to trace the lines] is an evil, inartistic, habit-forming, lazy and vicious machine! It also is a useful, time-saving, practical and helpful one. I use one often-and am thoroughly ashamed of it. I hide it whenever I hear people coming.

It wouldn’t be right for me to clown around when I’m painting a president.

The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure. So, you see, they’re always looking ahead to something new and exciting. The secret is not to look back.

How will I be remembered? As a technician or artist? As a humorist or a visionary?

If there was sadness in this creative world of mine, it was a pleasant sadness. If there were problems, they were humorous problems.

I didn’t know what to expect from a famous movie star; maybe that he’d be sort of stuck-up, you know. But not Gary Cooper. He horsed around so much… that I had a hard time painting him.

I just wanted to do something important.

It was a pretty rough neighborhood where I grew up The really tough places were over around Third Avenue where it ran into the Harlem River, but we weren’t far away.

Some folks think I painted Lincoln from life, but I haven’t been around that long. Not quite.

I know of no painless process for giving birth to a picture idea. When I must produce, I retire to a quiet room with a supply of cheap paper and sharp pencils; my brain knows it’s going to take a beating.

I paint life as I would like it to be.

Some people have been kind enough to call me a fine artist. I’ve always called myself an illustrator. I’m not sure what the difference is. All I know is that whatever type of work I do, I try to give it my very best. Art has been my life.

No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He’s got to put all his talent and feeling into them!

I unconsciously decided that, even if it wasn’t an ideal world, it should be. So I painted only the ideal aspects of it – pictures in which there are no drunken slatterns or self-centered mothers… only foxy grandpas who played baseball with the kids and boys who fished from logs and got up circuses in the backyard.

If a picture wasn’t going very well, I’d put a puppy in it.

Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. My fundamental purpose is to interpret the typical American. I am a story teller.

You must first spend some time getting your model to relax. Then you’ll get a natural expression.

I’m tired, but proud.

I talk as I sketch, too, in order to keep their minds off what I’m doing so I’ll get the most natural expression I can from them. Also, the talking helps to size up the subject’s personality, so I can figure out better how to portray him.

Right from the beginning, I always strived to capture everything I saw as completely as possible.

I had a couple of million dollars’ worth of… stock once. And now it’s not worth much more than wallpaper. I guess I just wasn’t born to be rich.

I’m not going to be caught around here for any fool celebration. To hell with birthdays!