Margaret Keane

People either hate my paintings or they love them. There does not seem to be much middle ground.

I'm a night person; I don't usually get up till noon.

I didn't really start appreciating Picasso until a few years back. I didn't like him at all. But now I can see this world is crazy.

I don't know why I paint what I paint. I think it comes out - it's kind of my subconscious or something.

I would like to think all our gifts and talents and abilities come from God.

I finally got to the point where I decided I don't care if it's good art or bad art - it's what I do. I enjoy doing it, and people like it.

I was always drawing eyes, even as a child. Eyes fascinated me.

I didn't want people to know that I was an artist. I was ashamed. I thought artists were weird, crazy people, you know. So I always kind of hid the fact that I was an artist.

In the beginning, I started doing portraits of children, and of course, children have large eyes. For some reason, they just started getting bigger and bigger. Then, when I started painting imaginary children rather than real ones, they became bigger still.

Don't tell lies, ever. No matter what - not even little white lies.

Stand up for your rights and be brave, and don't be intimidated. Read your Bible. That's really given me strength, and it will give you strength. Pray, and use God's name, Jehovah. And never tell a lie, ever.

For many years, I had allowed my second husband to take credit for my paintings. But one day, unable to continue the deception any longer, I left him and my home in California and moved to Hawaii.

The old, sad art colors are gone. Now I paint bright colors. I paint paintings which are happy, where children are laughing and playing with animals. I paint paradise on Earth. I still paint sadness sometimes, but there is sadness in the world, too.