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

Some folks think I painted Lincoln from life, but I haven't been around that long. Not quite.

If there was sadness in this creative world of mine, it was a pleasant sadness. If there were problems, they were humorous problems.

I used to sit in the studio with a copy of the (Saturday Evening) Post laid across my knees ... And then I'd conjure up a picture of myself as a famous illustrator and gloat over it, putting myself in various happy situations, surrounded by admiring females, deferred to by office flunkies at the magazines, wined and dined by the editor.

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.

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

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.