Quotes By Lynda Barry

Cartoonist was the weirdest name I finally let myself have. I would never say it. When I heard it I silently thought, what an awful word.

I found myself compelled - like this weird, shameful compulsion - to draw cute animals.

I was unable to sleep and I would stay up and draw these little cartoons. Then a friend showed them around. Before I knew it I was a cartoonist.

I am not sure how much I would like being married if I wasn't married to him. A man who likes flea markets and isn't gay? I knew I was lucky.

The library was open for one hour after school let out. I hid there, looking at art books and reading poetry.

I listen like mad to any conversation taking place next to me just trying to hear why this is funny. Women's restrooms are especially great. I wash my hands twice waiting for people to come in and start talking.

There was a beautiful time in the beginning when I just did it and didn't analyze the consequences, but I think that time ends in everyone's work.

I do dumb stuff, like playing my favorite dumb Barry White song and lip-synching into the mirror so it looks like his voice is coming out of my mouth.

If I had had me for a student I would have thrown me out of class immediately.

Part of a horror movie has to be a bit fakey for me to really enjoy it. The new ones are so realistic that they distract me from the ride through the horror.

I do love to eavesdrop. It's inspirational, not only for subject matter but for actual dialogue, the way people talk.

The strips are nearly effortless unless I am really emotionally upset, a wreck.

People think that whatever I put into strips has happened to me in my life.

I used to live a very social life and never spend much solitary time looking at birds or reading.

It's one thing to have a relationship, to lay your hands on it, and another to make it continue and last. That's something I haven't talked about much in my comic strips, and it's certainly something I'm interested in.

If it is your time, love will track you down like a cruise missile.

I need to be cheered up a lot. I think funny people are people who need to be cheered up.

I wasn't afraid to be laughed at or be loud.

I grew up in a house that had a whole lot of trouble. As much trouble as you could imagine.

I look crazy. I know I do. Been true since I was a kid!

Sometimes I think I'm the craziest person on the planet.

My mom didn't want me to go to college. She didn't want me to read - when I read, I may as well have been holding a pineapple.

My goal on my bucket list is to write a romantic comedy movie.

Whenever I do a book, I'm usually guided by a question or something that I'm trying to tease out.

Remember how you used to be able to feel your bed breathing and the walls spinning when you were a kid?

In life there are always these things happening if you can just get the joke.

I go to work the minute I open my eyes.

Humor is such a wonderful thing, helping you realize what a fool you are but how beautiful that is at the same time.

Love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke.

I remember my comic strips being called 'new wave.' It bugged me.