LeRoy Neiman Quotes

I had a go at changing history - maybe not all by myself - I fought at the battle of Normandy, I slogged through the Ardennes, and I celebrated the liberation of Paris on the streets with beautiful French girls throwing flowers at me. I said good-bye to my first true love and discovered what I really wanted to do with my life.
LeRoy Neiman

Life, Love, History

As I turn 91 this June 8th, I have to admit my hours at the easel have diminished.
LeRoy Neiman

Turn, Hours, Admit

Boxing is my real passion. I can go to ballet, theatre, movies, or other sporting events... and nothing is like the fights to me. I'm excited by the visual beauty of it. A boxer can look so spectacular by doing a good job.
LeRoy Neiman

Beauty, Good, Movies

But 'Playboy' was liberating. I was drawn to it and went for it full throttle.
LeRoy Neiman

Full, Playboy, Liberating

Eating is one of the great beauties in life. One of my favorite recreations... eating with friends, the service, the ambience.
LeRoy Neiman

Life, Great, Friends

Every time I started painting it was like a new experience, but they all came out the same.
LeRoy Neiman

Time, Experience, Same

I always stayed in tune with my own ambitions and attitudes and I'm still my intractable old self, for better or worse.
LeRoy Neiman

Self, Old, Worse

I can easily ignore my detractors and feel the people who respond favorably.
LeRoy Neiman

Ignore, Respond, Easily

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.
LeRoy Neiman

American, Call, Guess

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Time, Able, Drawing

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Work, Important, Else

I have always said to young artists that scholastic training and the studying of art history are crucial to fully developing as an artist.
LeRoy Neiman

History, Art, Young

I hold doors open for all the women. Men can open the doors for themselves.
LeRoy Neiman

Women, Men, Themselves

I love the passion you go through while you're creating.
LeRoy Neiman

Love, Passion, Through

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.'
LeRoy Neiman

Successful, Friend, Comedy

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.'
LeRoy Neiman

Time, Care, Done

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Great, Past, Energy

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Best, Art, Give

Imagination comes of not having things.
LeRoy Neiman

It has been difficult to hold onto many paintings but I have retained a few. Possibly the current favorite is titled 'Big Band' completed in 2005. It measures 13 feet x 9 feet. It has 18 nearly life size recognizable portraits of the biggest jazz stars that I knew and saw perform in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s and includes Wynton Marsalis.
LeRoy Neiman

Life, Big, Difficult

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Life, Best, Nice

It's been fun. I've had a lucky life. Art has made me pull the best out of myself.
LeRoy Neiman

Life, Best, Art

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Talent, Arrogance, Act

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.
LeRoy Neiman

Wife, Woman, Career

No, I never had any dreams. The process of art is a dream in itself. The artist just doesn't... you work out something. It's yours. You don't have to go to sleep to do that. You do that on the canvas.
LeRoy Neiman

Dreams, Work, Art

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Artist

Born: June 8, 1921

Died: June 20, 2012

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