Quotes By Matt Groening

Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.

Basically, everything I try to do is to present an alternative to what somebody else is doing.

Me fail english? Thats unpossible.

It's a funny show. The characters are surprisingly likable, given how ugly they are. We've got this huge cast of characters that we can move around. And over the last few seasons, we've explored some of the secondary characters' personal lives a bit more.

We've been running a little behind schedule. But only by about 15 years or so.

Because good writing in a TV cartoon is so rare, I think the animation on The Simpsons is often overlooked.

I don't have to be careful, I've got a gun.

I draw a weekly comic strip called Life in Hell, which is syndicated in about 250 newspapers. That's what I did before The Simpsons, and what I plan to do for the rest of my life.

Well, most grown-ups forget what it was like to be a kid. I vowed that I would never forget.

Families are about love overcoming emotional torture.

'The Simpsons' is an especially collaborative show.

I think 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' have definitely staked out their own style and territory, and now the accusations are coming that 'The Simpsons' is taking jokes from 'Family Guy.' And I can tell you, that ain't the case.

I'm a writer who just happens to draw.

When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.

Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun.

A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen.

Since I was there in the very beginning, I know the history of the characters. So, I make comments about the tone and sometimes remind the writers that we've done that before.

Eat my shorts!

One of the things I would like to do is make up stories that I would have enjoyed when I was a kid. So, if I'm thinking about an audience, it's usually a younger version of myself.

Everybody doesn't have to get every joke. People really appreciate not being condescended to.

I don't know why I did it, I don't know why I enjoyed it, and I don't know why I will do it again.

I think in daily newspapers, the way comic strips are treated, it's as if newspaper publishers are going out of their way to kill the medium.

It's just hard not to listen to TV: it's spent so much more time raising us than parents have.

Sometimes people get mad at The Simpsons' subversive story telling, but there's another message in there, which is a celebration of making wild, funny stories.

God often gives nuts to toothless people.

The writers led by Mike Scully are fantastic. And they're creating original stories that not only don't repeat what we've already done, they also don't repeat anything I've seen on television.

When the authorities warn you of the dangers of having sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities.

Don't have a cow, man.

I was always frightened by taverns. They just seemed like very unpleasant places to go.

When The Simpsons came around, there really was nothing else like it on TV. It's hard to imagine, but when Fox first took the plunge with it, it was considered controversial to put animation on prime time.