Walter Keane quotes

Let's face it, nobody could paint eyes like El Greco, and nobody can paint eyes like Walter Keane. (Walter Keane)
We don't criticize them, so why criticize Walter Keane just because his symbol of humanity is a child? View quote
Walter Keane
Well, I first, uh, started doing this after World War II when I was kind of tramping around France, Germany, and the lowlands, and I came upon these frightened, waif-type children, and, uh, they actually looked like rats running around and they acted like it. And, uh, I started painting this type of thing of these chi-these children, they didn't even seem to know why-these children didn't even seem to know how to talk; they couldn't even pray. And it started like, uh, an artist work-it-it does-you don't know how to talk about it, but the painting can talk for you, and I think this is the difference between an artist and a poet and a writer: in other words, an artist, uh, paints what he has to say, where other people do it in, uh, in more verbal type of... View quote
Walter Keane
But it was a real nightmare when Walter threatened to kill me and our two daughters if we told anyone. View quote
Walter Keane
My psyche was scarred in my art student days in Europe, just after World War II, by an ineradicable memory of war-wracked innocents. In their eyes lurk all of mankind's questions and answers. If mankind would look deep into the soul of the very young, he wouldn't need a road map. I wanted other people to know about those eyes, too. I want my paintings to clobber you in the heart and make you yell, "DO SOMETHING!" View quote
Walter Keane
I don't really care what people think of me. Whatever anyone may say, I've helped the whole art world, just as Picasso and Dalí have. I've made people aware of painting, which makes them buy more, just like they go buy more records and books once they're exposed. View quote
Walter Keane
It takes dispassionate bravado to speak of oneself in the third person. Walter has such bravado: it is one of the chief reasons for his success. View quote
Walter Keane
He can't paint eyes. He couldn't learn to paint at all. View quote
Walter Keane
I lost all respect for him and myself, and lived in a nightmare. View quote
Walter Keane