. . . it's worth recognizing that there is no such thing as an overnight success. You will do well to cultivate the resources in yourself that bring you happiness outside of success or failure. The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few. |
(W)hen I stopped understanding math and science, my choice was made. |
[A little more than a year after the comic entered syndication, it was collected in a book that became a bestseller -- which helped the newspaper client list grow faster.] I was not prepared for the resulting attention, ... Besides disliking the diminishment of privacy and the inhibiting quality of feeling watched, I valued my anonymous, boring life. In fact, I didn't see how I could write honestly without it. A year later, I moved out west, got an unlisted phone number, stopped giving interviews, and tried to fly as low under the radar as possible. Of course, some reporters took this as a personal challenge to intrude, but in general, my quiet life let me concentrate on my work. |
[Calvin: A 6-year-old boy who thinks like a grown-up and fantasizes like a child.] Calvin is very frenetic, ... The thing I like about him is that he's very curious, and everything in the world is new to him. |
[Calvin's parents: Unnamed] because as far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad, ... I've tried to keep them realistic, with a reasonable sense of humor about having a kid like Calvin. |
A box of new crayons! Now they're all pointy, lined up in order, bright and perfect. Soon they'll be a bunch of ground down, rounded, indistinguishable stumps, missing their wrappers and smudged with other colors. Sometimes life seems unbearably tragic. |
A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day. |
A REAL job is a job you hate. |
After today, I'll bet Santa takes a shovel to the reindeer stalls to fill your stocking. |
Amazingly, much of the best cartoon work was done early on in the medium's history. The early cartoonists, with no path before them, produced work of such sophistication, wit, and beauty that it increasingly seems to me that cartoon evolution is working backward. Comic strips are moving toward a primordial goo rather than away from it . . . Not only can comics be more than we're getting today. but the comics already have been more than we're getting today. |
At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you'll have to find the inner motivation to search for new ideas on your own. |
By golly, life's too darn short to waste time trying to please every meddlesome moron who's got an idea how I ought to be! I don't need advice! Everyone can just stay out of my face! |
Calvin is very frenetic. The thing I like about him is that he's very curious, and everything in the world is new to him. |
Childhood is short and maturity is forever. |
Comics are capable of being anything the mind can imagine. I consider it a great privilege to be a cartoonist. I love my work, and I am grateful for the incredible forum I have to express my thoughts. People give me their attention for a few seconds every day, and I take that as an honor and a responsibility. I try to give readers the best strip I'm capable of doing. |