Top 68 Quotes About Norman Rockwell
#1. The startling truth is this: as this narrative unfolded, amidst all the voices breaking free, telling their stories for the first time, the loudest voice of all was that of Norman Rockwell.
Jane Allen Petrick
#2. For much of America, the all-American values depicted in Norman Rockwell's classic illustrations are idealistic. For those of us from Vermont, they're realistic. That's what we do.
Bernie Sanders
#3. Do you realize there was a time when the United States of America actually made sense? A time when you could look at a Norman Rockwell painting of a GI peeling potatoes for Mom and get all choked up and nobody'd laugh at you?
James K. Morrow
#4. Nobody complains that Bernini's sculptures are too darn real, right? Or that Norman Rockwell's paintings are too creepy. Well, robots can seem real and be loved, too. We're trying to make a new art medium out of robotics.
David Hanson
#5. Norman Rockwell, the Brueghel of the 20th century bourgeoisie, the Holbein of Jell-O ads and magazine covers; by common assent, the most American artist of all.
Jerry Adler
#6. Mr. and Mrs. Hankshaw were summoned from the waiting room where Saturday Evening Post fantasies had clouded their instinctive parental concern the way that Norman Rockwell's sentimental ideas cloud the purity of a blank canvas.
Tom Robbins
#7. I share something in common with Norman Rockwell and, for that matter, with Walt Disney. In that I really like to make people happy.
Thomas Kinkade
#8. Now I'm standing in black stiletto heels in the middle of a Norman Rockwell painting. (pg 106-107)
Katja Millay
#9. I get great joy from creating the perfect Norman Rockwell holiday. This is why I think I might be Martha Stewart's brother from another mother.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
#10. The actual American childhood is less Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney than Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.
Susan Cheever
#11. Everything about Jocelyn had been ordinary. A Norman Rockwell painting of mom, dad, one boy, one girl. Scott was her wild storm, her great American novel, her epic story. Every extraordinary moment she experienced was because of him.
Jessica Shook
#12. Inside was a tableau of frustration that might've been straight out of Norman Rockwell, if Norman Rockwell had painted people doing hard time in jail.
Ransom Riggs
#13. I didn't grow up in a Norman Rockwell house ... my house was more akin to Norman Lear.
Michael P. Naughton
#14. Used to be, conservatives revered the Average American, that Norman Rockwell oil painting of diner food, humble faith, honest toil, and Capraesque virtue.
James Wolcott
#15. It was very much like Norman Rockwell: small town America. We walked to school or rode our bikes, stopped at the penny candy store on the way home from school, skated on the pond.
Dorothy Hamill
#16. People always describe small towns as quaint or cozy or familiar. "You know who your neighbors are," they always seemed to say. But what you won't find depicted in a Norman Rockwell painting is how cruel those same neighbors can be.
T. Torrest
#17. Where Norman Rockwell is the Artist for the man on the street, O'Henry is his author.
Sonia Rumzi
#18. Family dinner in the Norman Rockwell mode had taken hold by the 1950s: Mom cooked, Dad carved, son cleared, daughter did the dishes.
Nancy Gibbs
#20. We got a Chinese Elvis painted by Norman Rockwell.
Steve Hackett
#21. It wasn't easy telling my family that I'm gay. I made my carefully worded announcement at Thanksgiving. It was very Norman Rockwell. I said, 'Mom, would you please pass the gravy to a homosexual?' She passed it to my father. A terrible scene followed.
Bob Smith
#22. I collect rare photographs ... I have two ... One of Houdini locking his keys in his car ... the other is a rare picture of Norman Rockwell beating up a child.
Steven Wright
#23. I brought samples in, because I didn't have any comic book samples, and I brought all these illustrations that I had influenced by Norman Rockwell and a couple of the other big boys. That's all I had, that's all I brought.
Dan DeCarlo
#24. You can't prove Rembrandt is better than Norman Rockwell - although if you actually do prefer Rockwell, I'd say you were shunning complexity, were secretly conservative, and hadn't really looked at either painter's work. Taste is a blood sport.
Jerry Saltz
#25. It is my opinion that Norman Rockwell and his ilk have done more to make already anxious people feel guilty than anyone else.
Laurie Colwin
#26. If there was sadness in this creative world of mine, it was a pleasant sadness. If there were problems, they were humorous problems.
Norman Rockwell
#27. I'm not going to be caught around here for any fool celebration. To hell with birthdays!
Norman Rockwell
#28. If the public dislikes one of my Post covers, I can't help disliking it myself.
Norman Rockwell
#29. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#30. I'll never have enough time to paint all the pictures I'd like to.
Norman Rockwell
#31. You must first spend some time getting your model to relax. Then you'll get a natural expression.
Norman Rockwell
#32. Travel is like a tonic to me. It's more than just getting away from the studio for a brief rest. I need it to recharge my batteries.
Norman Rockwell
#33. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#34. When I go to farms or little towns, I am always surprised at the discontent I find. And New York, too often, has looked across the sea toward Europe. And all of us who turn our eyes away from what we have are missing life.
Norman Rockwell
#37. Eisenhower had about the most expressive face I ever painted, I guess. Just like an actor's. Very mobile. When he talked, he used all the facial muscles. And he had a great, wide mouth that I liked. When he smiled, it was just like the sun came out.
Norman Rockwell
#38. I keep the pornographic stuff in a bus station locker.
Norman Rockwell
#39. Everyone in those days expected that art students were wild, licentious characters. We didn't know how to be, but we sure were anxious to learn.
Norman Rockwell
#40. The View of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and the ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be.
Norman Rockwell
#43. It wouldn't be right for me to clown around when I'm painting a president.
Norman Rockwell
#44. No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He's got to put all his talent and feeling into them!
Norman Rockwell
#45. The '20s ended in an era of extravagance, sort of like the one we're in now. There was a big crash, but then the country picked itself up again, and we had some great years. Those were the days when American believed in itself. I was happy and proud to be painting it.
Norman Rockwell
#46. Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative. We find that it is not a new scene which is needed, but a new viewpoint.
Norman Rockwell
#47. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#48. Right from the beginning, I always strived to capture everything I saw as completely as possible.
Norman Rockwell
#49. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#50. Things aren't much wilder now, I don't think, than they were back then. Of course I just read about all the goings-on now. Ha.
Norman Rockwell
#51. My best efforts were some modern things that looked like very lousy Matisses. Thank God I had the sense to realize they were lousy, and leave Paris.
Norman Rockwell
#52. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#53. How will I be remembered? As a technician or artist? As a humorist or a visionary?
Norman Rockwell
#54. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#55. A face in the picture would bother me, so I'd rub it out with the turpentine and do it over.
Norman Rockwell
#56. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#57. I'm still about as pigeon-toed as you can get. But I learned to manage pretty well on a bike. Should have had a bicycle then, when I was a kid, but our family didn't have the money for such luxuries. I saved up to buy one myself a few years later.
Norman Rockwell
#58. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#60. I work from fatigue to fatigue at my age there's only so much daylight left.
Norman Rockwell
#61. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#62. 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.
Norman Rockwell
#63. The remarks about my reaching the age of Social Security and coming to the end of the road, they jolted me. And that was good. Because I sure as hell had no intention of just sitting around for the rest of my life. So I'd whip out the paints and really go to it.
Norman Rockwell
#64. I learned to draw everything except glamorous women. No matter how much I tried to make them look sexy, they always ended up looking silly ... or like somebody's mother.
Norman Rockwell
#65. I can take a lot of pats on the back. I love it when I get admiring letters from people. And, of course, I'd love it if the critics would notice me, too.
Norman Rockwell
#66. Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.
Norman Rockwell
#67. Some folks think I painted Lincoln from life, but I haven't been around that long. Not quite.
Norman Rockwell
#68. Very interesting for an old duffer like me to try his hand at something new. If I don't do that once in a while, I might just turn into a fossil, you know!
Norman Rockwell
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