Jeff Kinney Quotes

I wish I was better at art. I love some of the great artists of the 19th century and, compared to them, I just feel I lack this technique that they had. They have so much skill.

I have no drawing talent whatsoever. I cannot do it.

I wish I could draw.

I'm a bad artist. I'm lazy and untalented and bad.

I start with the aim of making something instrumental, and then I'm just like, 'Agh, no, it's not interesting enough. I've got to say something here.'

I wanted to be an abstract painter, but I was rotten at it.

Until I began to learn to draw, I was never much interested in looking at art.

I start a book and I want to make it perfect, want it to turn every color, want it to be the world. Ten pages in, I've already blown it, limited it, made it less, marred it. That's very discouraging. I hate the book at that point.

I'm a horrible drawer. I have no artistic ability in my hands.

I would go to sketch groups and draw. I really enjoyed the subject matter, but I wasn't good at it.

I've been drawing as long as I can remember. I think all children draw as soon as they figure out the thumb and can grab crayons. The only difference with people like myself is that we never stopped drawing.

I thought maybe I could become like the next Van Gogh. I bought a sunflower and painted it, and it looked like the work of a 6-year-old.

I've got two girls, and they both make beautiful drawings. One of them really has a gift for the way that she colors around certain lines.

People can't draw now and don't feel it's necessary. Art students don't seem to want to draw.

In my youth I dreamed of being an illustrator.

Only a bad artist thinks he has a good idea. A good artist does not need anything.

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.

But I'm not an artist. Maybe an artist with a small a.

Everyone can draw when they're five. Most of us lose the ability.

I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist; or I'd draw a big ram's head, really messy. I'd never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect Spiderman.

I went to film school at UT Austin. I learned a lot, and that school's good for puking up all your bad movies early and quick. But ultimately, no one can teach you to be an artist.

It wasn't a problem for me drawing humans although I had originally come to the studio with the idea that what I had to offer them was my knowledge in the drawing of animals.

I do think that I'm not good at making pretty things. It doesn't come so naturally for me.

I have been doodling since childhood. I have a passion for illustrating but cannot paint or colour for that matter. I illustrate what I am trying to communicate through my writing. My images are like drawings in a science text book.

I don't think money can help you become a better painter, for sure. You can have all the studios you want; it won't help you make a better painting.