A biography for Lynda Barryhasn’t been written yet.
“I wasn't afraid to be laughed at or be loud.”
“Going on Letterman is like going off the high dive. It's exhilarating, but after a while it wasn't the kind of thrill I enjoyed.”
“People think that whatever I put into strips has happened to me in my life.”
“Playing and fun are not the same thing, though when we grow up we may forget that and find ourselves mixing up playing with happiness. There can be a kind of amnesia about the seriousness of playing, especially when we played by ourselves.”
“It is true that I am a person with black pockets of evil and hatred in my heart. There are underground places inside of me”
“Sometimes I think I'm the craziest person on the planet.”
“What year is it in your imagination?”
“My strips are not always funny, and they can be pretty grim at times, and I know I lose readers because of it, but I can't do anything about it - my work is very much connected to something I need to do in order to feel stable.”
“My goal on my bucket list is to write a romantic comedy movie.”
“The happy ending is hardly important, though we may be glad it's there. The real joy is knowing that if you felt the trouble in the story, your kingdom isn't dead.”
“The strips are nearly effortless unless I am really emotionally upset, a wreck.”
“I grew up in a house that had a whole lot of trouble. As much trouble as you could imagine.”
“You have to be willing to spend time making things for no known reason.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I run a tight ship, but I try and make it seem like I'm not doing that at all.”
“I go to work the minute I open my eyes.”
“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.”
“Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real.”
“I think of images as an immune system and a transit system.”