I came in as an established artist. People were hiring me for what I did and for who I was. I think that has given me a vast amount of leeway; I feel so lucky that I came in that way.

If there's a theme in my work, it's that I like to focus on smart people who are facing oppression and who are fighting back against it.

When you hold a graphic novel in your hands, you're holding artist blood made ink.

You can't use a drawing to prove a war crime. A drawing doesn't have that notion that it's proof of a reality. Because of that, you can do all sorts of interesting things in it.

Rejection is inevitable. Let it hit you hard for a moment, feel the hurt, and then move on.

I can't reasonably pretend to be a transparent and omniscient narrator who brings no personal perspective. That person doesn't exist.

Despite everything we know about photo manipulation, a photo is still considered an objective document.

Neutrality and boredom are the weapons of the state.

One thing about Guantánamo, beyond anything else, is the commitment against all odds to allow Americans to view themselves as the good guy, no matter what the situation is.

I absorbed the lie that any smart woman would use birth control and be responsible for her body. Obviously that's not true.

You start like a white blanket and you have to preserve that, and each year that you live chips away at your essential value.

Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.

There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.

Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.

The art of doing mathematics consists in finding that special case which contains all the germs of generality.

Blues was my first love. It was the first thing where I said, 'Oh man, this is the stuff.' It just sounded so raw and honest, gut-bucket honest. From then I started rebelling.

If you think of having a family as being loved as a child, cared for - I did not experience that.

What the future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness now.

All recognized famous inventors had capable predecessors and successors and made their improvements at a time when society was capable of using their product.

Courage, like so many other things, was not something one did or didn't have; it was a decision, a choice.

I don't know why, the very first word on my very first record is 'Jesus.' I still invoke him as an entity to reckon with.