Jonathan Shapiro

“I see the cartoonist as contributing to the content, being critical, because we do poke holes in some of the dialogue and find new ways of seeing things.”

“There was a teacher who recognized that I was interested in cartooning and he was great.”

“Even people that I agree with can do something that would be a target for a bit of humor.”

“Gee, I am a complete Luddite when it comes to computers, I can barely log on!”

“I normally keep a series of draft in a catalogue type of book in which I scribble, sketch and draw ideas.”

“I think the eyes are very revealing and can expose a lot about a persons mood or character.”

“What's much harder is taking on people in your own community.”

“Primarily I'm a social commentator rather than someone who's out to get the belly laugh.”

“You can't undo a deportation.”

“I was very lucky all three newspapers approached me and asked me to draw their cartoons for them.”

“The cartoons which I enjoy have caused some kind of out rage, but they have got people talking about these issues out in the open and in essence that's what its all about.”

“On one occasion in 1987 the security police came looking for me because of a drawing that I'd published.”

“There are certain people within the new government who have a slightly disturbing tendency toward authoritarianism, but there are so many checks and balances that in that way their noises are just noises.”

“Mandela once phoned me out of the blue while he was still president, and at first he played with me a bit.”

“I am anti-Bush. A lot of what he stands for is the antithesis of what I stand for.”

“Certainly in cartooning I'm given huge free rein at the moment.”

“It's to be a person who's able to shoot little arrows into sacred cows and knock politicians off their pedestals, to look out for hypocrisy, advocate for all sorts of things from social justice to peace.”

“Sometimes I have to compromise my views, but I never compromise on issues like the death penalty and the arm trade laws, despite what the readers or letters may say.”

“I would think a sense of the absurd is more important for a political cartoonist, because that could define things like a sense of hypocrisy or a sense of the things one has to be skeptical about.”

“I try not to change my political point of view from paper to paper.”