When I was young I once found a book in a Dutch translation, The 'Leaves of Grass'. It was the first time a book touched me by its feeling of freedom and open spaces, the way the poet spoke of the ocean by describing a drop of water in his hand. Walt Whitman was offering the world an open hand (now we call it democracy) and my 'Monument for Walt Whitman' became this open hand with mirrors, so you can see inside yourself.

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Appel's quote is referring to his sculpture 'Monument for Walt Whitman', dedicated to the American poet

More quotes by Karel Appel

All Karel Appel quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Karel Appel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.