Top 30 Norman Rockwell Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I’m tired, but proud.”

— Norman Rockwell

2. “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

3. “The view of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be.”

— Norman Rockwell

4. “If the public dislikes one of my Post covers, I can’t help disliking it myself.”

— Norman Rockwell

5. “Here in New England, the character is strong and unshakable.”

— Norman Rockwell

6. “I just wanted to do something important.”

— Norman Rockwell

7. “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

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

— Norman Rockwell

9. “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

10. “I’ll never have enough time to paint all the pictures I’d like to.”

— Norman Rockwell

11. “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

12. “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

13. “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

14. “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

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

— Norman Rockwell

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

— Norman Rockwell

17. “I keep the pornographic stuff in a bus station locker.”

— Norman Rockwell

18. “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

19. “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

20. “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

21. “How will I be remembered? As a technician or artist? As a humorist or a visionary?”

— Norman Rockwell

22. “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

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

— Norman Rockwell

24. “I’m the oldest antique in town.”

— Norman Rockwell

25. “I work from fatigue to fatigue at my age there’s only so much daylight left.”

— Norman Rockwell

26. “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

27. “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

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

— Norman Rockwell

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

— Norman Rockwell

30. “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

31. “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

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

— Norman Rockwell

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

— Norman Rockwell

34. “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