By George Lucas, On Norman Rockwell
“He showed us an idealized version of life, of what he wanted it to be or what he thought it to be. I did that in American Graffiti. I came from a small town in central California and grew up in the Norman Rockwell world of burning leaves on Saturday morning. All the things that were in Rockwell paintings were part of my life. So there’s a very strong nostalgic pull for me with Rockwell. But he really did document what life was like then. And that’s what I was trying to do in American Graffiti. I wanted to show a uniquely American mating ritual of the ’50s and ’60s, to show how boys related to girls. It was all done through cars and it was a particular kind of social culture. And that’s a direct descendant of Rockwell.”
-George Lucas