One of the most valuable things one of my art teachers said to me was, ‘Don’t get upset by criticism. Value the fact that at least someone noticed what you did.

I prefer to imagine that my wife, a few friends, and occasionally my mom are the only ones who read what I do, though I realize that this is somewhat unrealistic.

I don't think of myself as an illustrator. I think of myself as a cartoonist. I write the story with pictures - I don't illustrate the story with the pictures.

The thing I don't understand is why so often one hears discussion of the fruits of human labor as if it's all the creation of some alien race.

A book sometimes seems to impose a through-line to life that real life doesn't actually have.

The modern world seems to make fun of people in a lot of ways.

Even the disappointing diffusion of a sheer curtain can suggest the most colorful bouquet of unspeakable secrets.

I believe that the development of language - of naming, categorization, conceptualization - destroys our ability to see as we age.

Comics, at least in periodical form, exist almost entirely free of any pretense; the critical world of art hardly touches them, and they're 100% personal.

Mostly, I was only interested in television as a kid, and the majority of reading material I collected was an adjunct to that central concern, comic books and magazines included.

No one blames themselves if they don't understand a cartoon, as they might with a painting or "real" art; they simply think it's a bad cartoon.

To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.

I didn't come into politics to have to deal with the issue of clandestine entry, illegal working, or an asylum system that allows a free run for right-wing bigots.

The promises of Fidel Castro's so-called revolution of pluralism and democracy, were and continue to be a false promise and a betrayal of all basic human rights.

The appearance of a single great genius is more than equivalent to the birth of a hundred mediocrities

Prejudgments become prejudices only if they are not reversible when exposed to new knowledge.

A group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite.

Only become a musician if there is absolutely no other way you can make a living.

[On fishing:] Greatest rest in the world for the brain.

When I began to write seriously, 40 years ago now, my chosen form was the novel.