If I don't have an erection when I'm doing a drawing, I know it's no good.

- Tom Of Finland

My whole life long I have done nothing but interpret my dreams of ultimate masculinity, and draw them.

- Tom Of Finland

In those days, a gay man was made to feel nothing but shame about his feelings and his sexuality. I wanted my drawings to counteract that, to show ga…

- Tom Of Finland

The abstract, especially in those rough sketches, is very important to me, perhaps because of my advertising background, where layout is so important…

- Tom Of Finland

I almost never draw a completely naked man. He has to have at least a pair of boots or something on. To me, a fully dressed man is more erotic than a…

- Tom Of Finland

I know my little 'dirty drawings' are never going to hang in the main salons of the Louvre, but it would be nice if - I would like to say 'when,' but…

- Tom Of Finland