The only thing the Pop Artists had in common is that we all had been commercial artists in some manner. Lichtenstein was a draftsman; I was a billboard painter, but we didn’t work together. I didn’t meet Andy Warhol until 1964. – James Rosenquist
The best thing about being an artist is the free clothing and getting to kiss pretty girls. – James Rosenquist
It’s amazing how you meet people through other people. I knew a racecar driver, Stefan Johansson, who was very hot. He introduced me to Jean Todt. He introduced me to a French doctor. He introduced me to a French architect who redid the Louvre with I.M. Pei. He introduced me to Daniel Boulud. – James Rosenquist
I was on a panel with Marshall McLuhan in Canada. Someone says, ‘Mr. McLuhan, I read your book, and I disagree with you.’ And he says, ‘Oh, you read my book? Then you only know half the story.’ – James Rosenquist
Many young artists, they look at the art world and think they can make a lot of money. – James Rosenquist
When I started out, I wanted to paint the Sistine Chapel. But I didn’t have the content. – James Rosenquist
People can remember their childhood, but events from four or five years ago are in a never-never land. – James Rosenquist
I went to the University of Minnesota, and I met this amazing artist named Cameron Boothe there who was in World War I, who studied with Hans Hoffman in Munich. – James Rosenquist
If a person is insane or troubled, you first have to get the person to admit that they have a problem before you can solve anything. – James Rosenquist
You live till you die, and that’s the end of it. What good is your legacy when you are dead? I worry about being alive, selling work, having fun, moving and doing things when I am alive. – James Rosenquist
Many of my old friends are gone now. I have a hard time dealing with the fact that they’re just not there to talk to. I can’t call them up for a rabbit-skin glue recipe anymore. – James Rosenquist
When things become peculiar, frustrating and strange, I think it’s a good time to start painting. – James Rosenquist
I started billboard painting in Minneapolis, and I went to General Outdoor Advertising, and I said, ‘I could do that.’ They said, ‘Oh yeah… we can always use a good man around here.’ – James Rosenquist
There was one reviewer from the ‘New York Times,’ I forget his name, who said I was ‘death warmed over.’ I wrote him back that I knew more about death than he did. The ‘Times’ fired him, put him in the cooking department! – James Rosenquist
I hitchhiked to Miami in 1953, and there were oranges laying on the road, black shantytowns, and marinas with nice boats. The museums were virtually empty. – James Rosenquist
I painted the Astor-Victoria sign seven times, and it’s 395 feet wide and 58 feet high. I dropped a gallon of purple paint on Seventh Avenue and 47th Street from 15 stories up and didn’t kill anybody. I dropped a brush at Columbus Circle. It fell on a guy’s camel-hair coat. – James Rosenquist
Certainly I have made comments on American society with the various pictures and have done about nine antiwar paintings. But I did them because I was incorporating my feelings into my work. – James Rosenquist
