Words matter. These are the best LeRoy Neiman Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Every time I started painting it was like a new experience, but they all came out the same.
Imagination comes of not having things.
It’s not the act of arrogance to draw, it’s humbling – you must use your God-given talent. And of all the people I sketch, in most cases I feel I have to measure up to the subject.
I love the passion you go through while you’re creating.
As I turn 91 this June 8th, I have to admit my hours at the easel have diminished.
The people who love my paintings, that respond to them the most, they’re spectators, they’re not viewers.
I hold doors open for all the women. Men can open the doors for themselves.
I played an artist in a comedy called ‘Rooster.’ It was a zany film by Glen Larson, a friend who produced several successful television series including ‘Magnum PI.’
You can’t take yourself too seriously.
I guess I created LeRoy Neiman. Nobody else told me how to do it. Well, I’m a believer in the theory that the artist is as important as his work.
It’s a nice feeling to go out in the world and look for excellence – the best in man. My subject is very valid. It’s about people, and about life.
I’ve met and sketched most of the great athletes from the past five decades and their movement, grace and energy have kept me captivated over the years. That’s what the ancient Greeks first saw and that’s what caught my interest.
I’ve got the public. I don’t care about the critics. I did at one time. I don’t any more. I did when I needed compliments. But if you get a lot of compliments, you don’t need a critic to tell you, ‘This should be done another way.’
I don’t know if I’m an impressionist or an expressionist. You can call me an American first… I’ve been labeled doing neimanism, so that’s what it is, I guess.
‘Playboy’ made the good life a reality for me and made it the subject matter of my paintings – not affluence and luxury as such, but joie de vivre itself.
I draw all the time. Drawing is my backbone. I don’t think a painter has to be able to draw, I just think that if you draw, you better draw well.
The big shock of my life was Abstract Expressionism – Pollock, de Kooning, those guys. It changed my work. I was an academically trained student, and suddenly you could pour paint, smear it on, broom it on!
You know what I like about San Francisco? The women are beautiful, fashionable and smart. San Francisco is one of the only cities I like to visit. I love New York and Chicago – I studied there, and L.A. has the same people as New York.
I always stayed in tune with my own ambitions and attitudes and I’m still my intractable old self, for better or worse.
Eating is one of the great beauties in life. One of my favorite recreations… eating with friends, the service, the ambience.
I have always said to young artists that scholastic training and the studying of art history are crucial to fully developing as an artist.
I’ve zeroed in on what you would call action and excellence… Everybody who does anything to try to succeed has to give the best of themselves, and art has made me pull the best out of myself.
My lovely wife Janet has been in a few paintings. She is basically a reserved woman who has never sought the limelight. She has always been there throughout my career and continues to be at my side.
The businessman says ‘If I don’t do it first, somebody else will.’ The artist says ‘If I don’t do it first, nobody else will.’
When I paint, I seriously consider the public presence of a person – the surface facade. I am less concerned with how people look when they wake up or how they act at home. A person’s public presence reflects his own efforts at image development.
