Paul Smith Quotes

#1. I think there were some programs but in those days art programs were kind of basic. You would do drawing and simple collage type work. But at home I was beginning to get interested in doing my own thing as well. I'm not sure what inspired this, but I became very interested in decorating things.

Paul Smith

#2. Christianity began in Palestine as an experience, it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, it moved to Italy and became an institution, it moved to Europe and became a culture, and it moved to America and became a business! We've left the experience long behind.

Paul Smith

#3. Don't dress for fashion, dress for yourself

Paul Smith

#4. Going back to the elementary school days, I was always drawing. I entered a Victory poster competition and won the top award that recognized my artistic instincts.

Paul Smith

#5. What I adore is mixing the unexpected, things you don't imagine should go together

Paul Smith

#6. I was always making things. I made model airplanes and did a number of hands-on activities. I liked creating in some form or another, not realizing what it was all about.

Paul Smith

#7. A story is the shortest distance between being a stranger and being a friend.

Paul Smith

#8. In thinking back, not having any experience in any other elementary school, there may have been an advantage of being with different age groups to benefit from what they were learning in a more advanced capacity. With a small group like that, there was a lot of one-to-one teaching.

Paul Smith

#9. There was a certain amount of discipline, I think; my parents wanted to be sure that I was not just sitting around doing nothing.

Paul Smith

#10. In terms of any sacrifices at the time [of World War II], I was somewhat protected living on a small farm where there was food, different perhaps from living in a city environment. I know such things as gas rationing did exist, but it wasn't anything that interfered with my daily activity.

Paul Smith

#11. Maybe that's what I've based my career on: getting up earlier than everyone else so I get an extra couple of hours.

Paul Smith

#12. Even today, the bigger the city, the better. That's why I live in New York.

Paul Smith

#13. The pastors and ministry leaders came away energized to have voter registration drives at their churches and motivated to encourage their congregations to "vote their values."

Paul Smith

#14. He [my father] didn't have a basement workshop as such, but I know that he did build things, construct things, repair things. My mother, likewise, was sewing and doing activities that often take place in a household.

Paul Smith

#15. Fortunately, I had cousins who lived in Buffalo and would often go to visit them, which I loved to do because I liked Buffalo as it was a big city. Even today, the bigger the city, the better.

Paul Smith

#16. I was always busy doing something, being an only child.

Paul Smith

#17. There's always an important person who helps support your interests and encourages you.

Paul Smith

#18. My parents' names were Florian and Mabel Smith. My mother's maiden name was Dersam. They were of German heritage and were part of a family community with my grandparents and uncles and relatives. I was an only child.

Paul Smith

#19. The environment itself was culturally a vacuum, in that there was simply nothing that would inspire me in the arts. But my parents were always very supportive of anything that I explored or wanted to do.

Paul Smith

#20. At home, the radio was a big source and the classic radio programs we would listen to like Amos and Andy and whatever other ones there were.

Paul Smith

#21. Being born in '31 was during the Depression and in my earlier youth World War II took place - so it was not the best of times, and yet I don't recall ever having experiences that were a burden.

Paul Smith

#22. At school there were some programs in music. I did take piano lessons, and we had a piano at home. I got very interested in that.

Paul Smith

#23. My parents never prevented me from doing anything, but they didn't have the knowledge of the arts that Mrs. Ranger had.

Paul Smith

#24. The class situation [at Art Institute on Elmwood Avenue] was such that one would be very much on their own to paint or draw. The faculty was roving to give opinions or help out technically, which all the faculty did very well.

Paul Smith

#25. In a social studies class I did a paper on the history of Attica, which ended up being a little book that I created.

Paul Smith

#26. I was engaged in all the required courses of math and geometry, but the area that I blossomed in was the art program.

Paul Smith

#27. When life closes a door, God opens a window.

Paul Smith

#28. You can find inspiration in everything. If you can't, then you're not looking properly.

Paul Smith

#29. At one point I had dreams of being in the school band, but I didn't play an instrument that qualified me, and that was a problem. I always had fantasies to be part of that, but I did take my piano lessons quite seriously.

Paul Smith

#30. It was mainly a growing farm, although we did have chickens and a few animals, but I did help to some degree with that. I have to say that it was not my favorite association.I did what I was asked to do.

Paul Smith

#31. People, even children, aren't really afraid of change. They're afraid of not being prepared for change.

Paul Smith

#32. I was there [in school] the full time with one teacher, and the student body was never more than 10 or 12 students of all ages.

Paul Smith

#33. It was only when I got to high school and was in the art program that my artistic talent was recognized. The art program was directed by a wonderful and a very important person in my life - Charlotte Ranger, who was referred to as Mrs. Ranger. She had been teaching in the school for many years.

Paul Smith

#34. There were neighbors that I played with and did all the things that children do. I did mow the lawn. I did help with various things that needed to be done to occupy my time.

Paul Smith

#35. Twitter proved without a shadow of a doubt it is much more than a social network, but a user-defined infrastructure that can be harnessed to change lives and expectations, to share and enhance unique experiences and viewpoints. - Twitchhiker

Paul Smith

#36. One association with the arts that I vividly remember was a magazine called Normal Instructor, a teachers' magazine, that Miss George would hold up with illustrations of great artworks like [Vincent] van Gogh and Rembrandt [van Rijn].

Paul Smith

#37. Charles Burchfield was exceptional. As such an accomplished artist, he had limited previous association with academia and teaching.

Paul Smith

#38. Stop making sense. Logic is predictable. Think differently.

Paul Smith

#39. We've got a nation of people who have one eye looking out for the next speed camera, another looking for a speed limit sign and another looking at the speedometer - which is a bit of a shame, when you only have two eyes.

Paul Smith

#40. I developed friends in the community that were in walking distance or a bicycle ride away, so that I socialized and did a lot of things that children do in their early years.

Paul Smith

#41. When knowledge is scant or conflicting, folklore takes over.

Paul Smith

#42. The Japanese are hard to understand, but once you do the world is your oyster.

Paul Smith

#43. Fashion is about today and tomorrow.
Nobody cares how good you used to be

Paul Smith

#44. I'm very curious and being childlike
is vital in our industry

Paul Smith

#45. Experience is the best teacher. A compelling story is a close second.

Paul Smith

#46. Many people look but they do not see.

Paul Smith

#47. I became a bit of a teacher's pet, and it became known in the school by both faculty and students that I really excelled in the arts. So that recognition I credit for my growing interest in art that continued to evolve later on.

Paul Smith

#48. I think it was interesting that when you're in those formative years you respond to things that interest you and don't always know where they lead. But they accumulate and add up to something that enriches your later life or leads you to some new experience.

Paul Smith