Harvey Pekar

“It dawned on me that comics were not an intrinsically limited medium. There was a tremendous amount of things you could do in comics that you couldn't do in other art forms - but no one was doing it. I figured if I'd make a try at it, I'd at least be a footnote in history.”

“It's real easy for me to write a lot of stories. I just go and I live through something, and I go home and write about it. It's that quick.”

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

“Of course I don't think I have it made by any means. I'm too insecure, obsessive and paranoid for that.”

“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 was 16 years old, and I was just flailing around, looking for an interest. I heard, you know, these jazz records. They were modern records, at the time in the '50s, and I realized that I didn't fully get what was going on. But I liked a lot of what I heard.”

“I guess I wanted to show people, among other things, that you don't have to be a hero to get through cancer. You can be a craven coward and get through. You have to stay on your medication and take your treatments, that's all.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“It didn't take long to establish myself, as far as people thinking my work was good. They liked it from the start.”

“I'm pretty aggressive, and maybe obnoxious, about trying to get work.”

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

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