Chris Ware Quotes

I prefer to imagine that my wife, a few friends, and occasionally my mom are the only ones who read what I do, though I realize that this is somewhat unrealistic.

I don't think of myself as an illustrator. I think of myself as a cartoonist. I write the story with pictures - I don't illustrate the story with the pictures.

The thing I don't understand is why so often one hears discussion of the fruits of human labor as if it's all the creation of some alien race.

A book sometimes seems to impose a through-line to life that real life doesn't actually have.

The modern world seems to make fun of people in a lot of ways.

Even the disappointing diffusion of a sheer curtain can suggest the most colorful bouquet of unspeakable secrets.

One of the most valuable things one of my art teachers said to me was, ‘Don’t get upset by criticism. Value the fact that at least someone noticed what you did.

No one blames themselves if they don't understand a cartoon, as they might with a painting or "real" art; they simply think it's a bad cartoon.

Comics, at least in periodical form, exist almost entirely free of any pretense; the critical world of art hardly touches them, and they're 100% personal.

I believe that the development of language - of naming, categorization, conceptualization - destroys our ability to see as we age.

Mostly, I was only interested in television as a kid, and the majority of reading material I collected was an adjunct to that central concern, comic books and magazines included.

Sometimes I get worried I'm getting too caught up in the nauseatingly oily smoothness of my own line, when all I'm trying to do is make it as clear as possible.

One of the things that appealed to me most about comics was that you can pick the ones you like and build your own personal pantheon.

It's somehow more comforting to imagine that one's suffering is unique, and to measure against what one doesn't know, rather than against what one does.

I think it has most to do with the way in which a story is told, whether it feels real either via the music of the telling or the honesty of the story.

Well, there are better cartoonists now than there ever have been. I firmly believe that. There's some amazing work being done.

Cartoons are not real drawings, because they are drawings intended to be read.

Every city began as a campsite - pg. 25

Drawing on a computer doesn't make any sense to me. It's not intuitive.

I had a messy signature as a child, and my grandmother said this suggested I had no regard for other people. She was right.

My mother was always encouraging about my wanting to be an artist.

My grandmother was an unparalleled storyteller who gave me a preview of how life might turn out, and also fortified my empathy.

Whereas in a memory you edit things out and sort of restructure the things to seem a little bit more heroic, or to focus on particular aspects that magnify or reduce certain things.

Fundamentally, I have no idea how the world works, though I am trying to figure it out.

I have a preponderance to look smug in photos; something to do with the way my mouth turns up at the corners.

I guess I just don't like being physically in front of people I don't know very well, because I expect to be "seen through," or, even worse, instantly hated.

The thing I like most about books is that anybody can afford them. They have an innate valuelessness.

I guess we all make choices as to how we want to live, right?

I still can't get over the idea that respectable adults now go to see superhero movies and that such films get reviewed in the 'New Yorker.' Clearly, I am seriously out of step with the times.

I think cartooning gets at, and re-creates on the page, some sixth sense ... in a way no other medium can.

The real power of comics is writing as you draw.

My head looks like an uncooked ham with glasses.

Comics are not a genre, but a developing language.

METAPHOR: A tightly fitting suit of metal, generally tin, which entirely encloses the wearer, both impeding free movement and preventing emotional expression and/or social contact.