Quotes By Harvey Pekar

I'm trying to get every man involved in art, into experimental music, or painting, or novel-writing.

I came up with American Splendor. Some people think it's American Squalor.

I think the people who would be the least interested in my work would be people who read lots of comic books.

I like to go back over history and check out what people have written and whether I agree with it or not.

I really don't have a lot in common with the people who attend the Comic Con. It's like assuming that all people who write prose are the same.

I wake up every morning in a cold sweat, regardless of how well things went the day before. And put that I said that in a somewhat but not completely tongue-in-cheek way.

I thought I had a great opportunity when I started doing my comic book in 1972. I thought there was so much territory to work in.

I'd been familiar with comics, and I'd collected 'em when I was a kid, but after I got into junior high school, there wasn't much I was interested in.

I think you can find all the elements that you can find in great literature in mundane experiences.

It's extremely seldom that anybody wants me to change what I've written about them. Generally I portray them in a good light, if they're friends.

My work looks like a comic book in form, but it's not a typical comic book in content. I write autobiographical stuff.

I don't mind if I show myself being cheap or unreasonable sometimes.

It seemed to me you could do anything in comics. So I started doing my thing, which is mainly influenced by novelists, stand-up comedians, that sort of thing.

People who are readers of fiction aren't particularly interested in comic books.

You can find heroism everyday, like guys working terrible jobs because they've got to support their families. Or as far as humor, the things I see on the job, on the street, are far funnier than anything you'll ever see on TV.

Everybody's like everybody else, and everybody's different from everybody else.

I've probably had my day in the sun. I think I've influenced a lot of comic book writers.

Things improved a little bit in the '80s; there was kind of a revival of alternative comics, but then they went downhill in the '90s.

I continue to be disappointed that people don't try and diversify the kind of work they are doing in comics.

I'm always shook up and nervous and I've got the hospital record to prove it.

Plays have been made of my comics.

I don't write about certain arguments I have with my wife. I'd get my head torn off if wrote about certain things.

I write scripts in storyboard fashion using stick figures, and thought balloons and word balloons and captions. Then I'll write descriptions of what scenes should look like and turn it over to the artist.

Some of the most valuable stuff I do has to do with my dissenting from the general opinion about people in movements.

American Splendor is just an ongoing journal. It's an ongoing autobiography. I started it when I was in my early 30s, and I just keep going.

I think comics have far more potential than a lot of people realize.

The film's success so far involves winning a couple of prizes at Cannes and Sundance, and getting some very nice reviews in newspapers and magazines. That hasn't had a big impact on my life yet.

It makes you feel good to know that there's other people afflicted like you.

I met Robert Crumb in 1962; he lived in Cleveland for a while. I took a look at his stuff. Crumb was doing stuff beyond what other writers and artists were doing. It was a step beyond Mad.

I decided I was going to tell these stories. I went around and met Crumb. He was the cartoonist. I started realizing comics weren't just kid stuff.