"My family wanted me to be an artist, although there were no artists in the family. It was simply that they were interested in art, they liked the idea. I used to draw (horrible drawings they were) when I was a child, so they said, “Obviously she’s going to be an artist,” and I was pushed at it. My father was an architect and engineer, and he went to some trouble to find out which one of the women’s colleges in the East had the best art department, and he picked Smith. I think it did perhaps have the best, and its museum was already outstanding. It offered plenty of courses in drawing and painting and of course I took every one of those."
– Louise Nevelson, from 'Particular Passions: Talks with Women Who Shaped Our Times,' by Lynn Gilbert. The oral biography of Louise Nevelson, whose work and vision elevated sculpture to its current place of prominence in the arts.