Garry Trudeau Quotes

"I just happen to have one of those skill sets that allows me to work in my underwear."

"The systematic dismantling of reproductive rights, much like the takedown of collective bargaining, has been taking place in full view."

"I'm still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to. For me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent."

"I don't think so, but it's always in the back of my mind that many of the soldiers being wounded and killed in Iraq are about the same age as my kids. My godson is going over soon, so the war's about to get personal for me."

"Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated."

"In their heyday, comics were a dominant force in popular culture, but that's over."

"There's always been some concern that adult subject matter should be quarantined from a page that attracts children. Unlike late at night, when 'South Park' and 'Colbert' are on, impressionable minds are wide awake when the newspaper arrives."

"Satire is a form of social control, it's what you do. It's not personal. It's a job."

"Life is like a movie-since there aren't any commercial breaks, you have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of it."

"I've been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence."

"Becoming the new feminine ideal requires just the right combination of insecurity, exercise, bulimia and surgery."

"In Palm Springs, they think homelessness is caused by bad divorce lawyers."

"Lives have been altered in fundamental ways, and later, after they acquire a more complete understanding of what goals are actually attainable, many are left facing a lot of pain and frustration. And yet, there's no culture of complaint."

"I try to take people one at a time, with all the contradictions and compromises that most of us live with."

"In any event, it's not exactly a secret to regular readers what my views on the war are."

"Well, it's a humor strip, so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader... But if, in addition, I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me, so much the better."

"Humor can inform and break down stigma, which is a huge issue in the military."

"I've never taken any issue off the table for lack of suitability. Only for lack of imagination."

"Any time you bring sexuality into the comics pages, you have to brace for pushback."

"Medical decisions have been politicized. What doctor wants a state legislator in his consulting room?"

"I've been getting pulled from newspapers for my entire career."

"For the most part, editors no longer view 'Doonesbury' as a rolling provocation, which is fine by me. It makes no sense to intentionally antagonize the very people on whose support you most depend."

"I don't want to sound disingenuous here - controversy is obviously good for business, especially if your business is satire. And it does amplify the discussion - in my view, a good thing."

"As far as I'm concerned, there is no subject that's off the table."

"I'm a pointillist, just working my tiny little piece of the canvas. I'm not so good at perspective."

"Coming up with ideas is really hard - they don't spontaneously pop into my head while I'm cutting vegetables."

"That's what fiction writers do: create characters and do terrible things to them for the entertainment of others. If they feel guilty enough, they write happy endings."

"I found that not having a public profile was not hurting the work, and it freed me up to be the satirist I wanted to be."

"There is nothing worse than annotated humour."

"Because I was a diminutive, arty kid, I felt like a misfit in high school - but who doesn't?"