"It takes a very long time to get to know Andrew Wyeth as a man and even longer to know him as an artist. He's a cover-up kind of guy in life and in art. But the key to understanding both human being and creator is to know that he is a staunch independent." (Introduction, 9)

"Of course, she's an old cripple, for Pete's sake!" (Introduction, 10).

"I wanted to get it all down, maybe out of my system. I wanted to be able to say, Everything's possible—if you believe and can get excited." (Introduction, 20)

"I think you can overdo it in simplification. You can be too Homeric, too life-eternal. I don't like that eight. It's a very fine boundary." (37)

"Brown Swiss was like doing a person's face—so complex!" (46)

"This is something you could never tell an art student." (52)

"Pictures happen; you don't sit down to...