Cartoonists Quotes

“Cartoons are a great medium for demonstrating just how absurd something is, without ever having to say it directly.

(2002 interview in Attitude)”
― Jen Sorensen

“Khalil Bendib is an equal-opportunity skewer. The more a subject or victim is ignored by the mass media, the more he infuriates, informs, and intensifies the reader's attention. Cartoons need to jolt. Bendib obliges page after page.”
― Ralph Nader

“You've done a lot of work on the revolution, obviously. And you tend to focus on women's rights and free speech. What other issues are you drawn to?

Eladl: All the issues that concern Egyptian citizen. I deal a lot with women's issues, gender rights, but I think I focus a lot of my work on Egyptian citizens and, because I think any reform should start with the Egyptian citizen, trying to get them to participate in this process.
The purpose of editorial cartooning is to awaken people. Some media outlets, whether in the United States or Egypt, distort the facts. And normally the media is controlled either by government, by investors, by the people who have the money. So cartoons, they should look into issues and make it clear whether it is black or white, or whether there is a grey area. People can look and distinguish between sincere and honest cartoonists and from other kinds that are not. Even an historian can be under pressure and to fake the writing of history. But cartoonists, we have the freedom to say what we want.

(2011 interview with Cartoon Movement)”
― Doaa El-Adl

“What has it been like editing comics?

It’s been a real learning experience. I think it makes you a better writer. Suddenly viewing things from that editor’s perspective it makes you aware of so much. I guess I like it. I feel like years of doing comic strips and constantly having to simplify them to fit everything into four little panels has given me tools to look at a piece and cut out excessive verbiage and to get things as concise as possible. It has been really interesting suddenly wearing the editor’s hat and realizing how involved an editor’s job is and how many details they have to keep track of. It’s certainly made me more sympathetic to editors. [laughs] We cartoonists like to complain about them, but it is a tough job.

(Interview with Comicsbeat)”
― Jen Sorensen

“When I first started out I wasn’t even really political. I just wanted to do surreal R. Crumb-ish comics. In the early days, I wanted to be as weird as possible. In the late nineties, in alt-weeklies, it seemed like we lived in times that allowed for absurdist humor. That would feel a little more frivolous now. Over time I feel like I have a greater sense of urgency to make a point and to tell the truth. Hopefully in an amusing way. I’m not trying to be as weird as I possibly can. I think I’m trying to make things a little simpler now, and more accessible.

(Interview with Comicsbeat)”
― Jen Sorensen

“Q: Why do you care about the environment?

I work a lot on environmental issues, ecology, justice, peace, equality ... because it seems important to show through caricature and humor, the imbalance that humans generate our actions. Cartoonists cannot fix the planet, but we propose starting points for other views.

(2016 interview, tabrizcartoons.com)”
― Elena Ospina Mejia

“Q: Why do you like to do cartoons? How long have you been in this activity?

Cartoon is the fun way to express opinions and communicate, that's why I like it. When I illustrate textbooks I also try to make them have humor...I've been publishing professionally since the early 90's, I was lucky enough to get to work in a newspaper and that was a great school, like a second university.

(Interview on irancartoon.com)”
― Elena Ospina Mejia

“The creative process doesn't begin with humor. It begins with subject matter.”
― Dave Coverly in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“I dream [a cartoon] into being by imagining how I want it to be. I lead with my imagination and, inevitably, the brush follows.”
― Kaamran Hafeez in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“It is nice to get your cartoons accepted, but if you can get past that and just draw for yourself and just try not to give a s***, which I know sounds arrogant, but that's how you have to be.”
― Harry Bliss in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“[Sam Gross] had some very interesting words of wisdom, one of which was 'Just remember, any minute it can all turn to s***.' That is sort of my general mindset, that all sorts of different anvils can fall out of the sky at any time.”
― Roz Chast in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“I saw that my drawings had to be of a simplicity that would match the idiocy I was seeking.”
― Jack Ziegler in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“One of the greatest, most wonderful things about cartooning is that it's so much up to the person doing it and how they want to do it. There's no one way.”
― Roz Chast in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“Cartooning for me is my art. I take it very seriously. It's highbrow, it's Daumier.”
― Harry Bliss in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“[My compulsion to create] is like a mental illness that I work out in cartoons.”
― Peter Vey in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“Just as music courses enhance our appreciation by dissecting melody, rhythm, and harmony, Funny Stuff accomplishes a similar feat for gag cartoons.”
― Bob Mankoff in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner

“I feel that the cartoon should involve something happening that could not possibly happen, but which has a kind of truth to it. There should be a give-and-take between the truth and the implausibility. If those two things are going on at the exact same time, and they’re both equal in weight, then the brain has a conflict that it has to resolve, and it can only resolve it through laughter.”
― Joe Dator in Funny Stuff: How Great Cartoonists Make Great Cartoons by Phil Witte & Rex Hesner