Kadir Nelson famous quotes

07-08-2025

My purpose is to create a mirror for the reader to see themselves, to create a light for people to see themselves in the characters, pictures, and stories. So they resonate.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Character #Mirrors #Light
Be present in your work because kids live in the moment, so as soon as you're not in the present, you're not being authentic.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Kids #Live In The Moment #Moments
For me, each book is kind of like a silent film. If you were to remove the words and just look at the pictures, you should be able to tell what the story is about without having to read a word of text. That's what I think I brought from doing artwork for film to doing artwork for books.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Book #Thinking #Silent Films
When I look at American history and I look at what history means to me, I look at it as if it were a string of stories. And if it's told well enough and in a way that's charming and warm and with wit and humor, then it takes a bit of the edge off of it. You can still tell the truth, but if you tell it very sweetly and very warmly, it makes it go down a bit easier.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Mean #Telling The Truth #Enough
I'm an artist by trade and an author by necessity.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Artist #Trade
Much of the message that I try to put across to students is that they have to figure out what they really like to do and find a way to do that as an adult for their jobs. A lot of people have jobs they don't like, and it makes for very unhappy people. So I tell them if you like to write, or run around, or dig in the dirt, then find a job that will allow you to do that, and you'll be happy.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Running #Jobs #Writing
What's important about the artists we learn about in art history and see in all the art books is that they have somehow pushed the boundaries of what people think art is or should be, and that's how they've made their work relevant. That's what I'm trying to figure out for myself.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Art #Book #Thinking
My uncle, who's an art teacher, took me under his wing and gave me a really strong foundation in art. I spent summers with him, and he taught me how to draw, how to see, how to mix colors, how to use different mediums and perspective, and so forth.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Summer #Teacher #Art
As a kid, I drew cartoon characters and comic book heroes. Spiderman and the X-Men were my favorites.
-- Kadir Nelson

#Book #Hero #Character

Celebrity is a national drama whose characters' parts and plots are written by the tabloids, gossip columnists, websites and interactive buttons. The famous don't actually have to turn up to their own lives at all.
Well madam, have you looked in the mirror and seen the state of your nose? Boxing is my excuse. What's yours?
Everything you experience mirrors a part of you.
You can't buy enlightenment, but you can hire a mirror so you can watch it happen.
In the light of what Proust wrote with so mild a stimulus, it is the world's loss that he did not have a heartier appetite. On a dozen Gardiner's Island oysters, a bowl of clam chowder, a peck of steamers, some bay scallops, three sauteed soft-shelled crabs, a few ears of fresh picked corn, a thin swordfish steak of generous area, a pair of lobsters, and a Long Island Duck, he might have written a masterpiece.
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We just need to keep battling. We're a team that has stuck together through the good times and the bad times. Our reward is near.
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
Being around some of the bright lights of the technology world and having them expect great things helps you sit down and do it seriously.
A poet is a verb that blossoms light in gardens of dawn, or sometimes midnight.
When the spirit shines, even foggy skies make pleasant light.

Kadir Nelson famous quotes

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