This was more than just a cow - this was an entire career I was looking at.
Gary Larson
I've always thought the word cow was funny. And cows are sort of tragic figures. Cows blur the line between tragedy and humor.
Great moments in science: Einstein discovers that time is actually money.
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression.
You know those little snow globes that you shake up? I always thought my brain was sort of like that. You know, where you just give it a shake and watch what comes out and shake it again. It's like that.
I remember one time watching a bird snatch a dragonfly out of midair and thinking, 'Gee, life can come to an end - crunch! - just like that.'
Sometimes I'm convinced that one day I'm going to draw the cartoon that offends everyone, and that'll be the end.
As a kid I used to raise snakes. Obviously, my social life was a bit down at the time. But it took me a while to realise that with an interest like that people are going to think there's something wrong with you.
The daily calendar seemed, to me, like a kind of cartoon black hole, and you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that that couldn't be sustained indefinitely. That's why I pulled the plug on that one after the '02 edition. Kind of a preemptive strike.
A long time ago, I became aware that many of us have a tendency to lump nature into simplistic categories, such as what we consider beautiful or ugly, important or unimportant. As human a thing as that is to do, I think it often leads us to misunderstand the respective roles of life forms and their interconnectedness.
People try to look for deep meanings in my work. I want to say, 'They're just cartoons, folks. You laugh or you don't.' Gee, I sound shallow. But I don't react to current events or other stimuli. I don't read or watch TV to get ideas. My work is basically sitting down at the drawing table and getting silly.
I've always considered music stores to be the graveyards of musicians.
You can get away with a lot as long as it has a silly edge to it.
On Career Day in high school, you don't walk around looking for the cartoon guy.
My future plans are hazy, and I've yet to experience how much cartooning is in my blood and therefore how much I'll miss it. But I have some other interests, especially in music, and I will probably take the opportunity to delve into those things more deeply.
I was so intrigued by insects and things that crawled or flew - I could spend hours by myself in a vacant lot.
The message is not so much that the worms will inherit the Earth, but that all things play a role in nature, even the lowly worm.
Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.
A lot of people think I'm going to be like someone who's stepped out of one of his own cartoons. And maybe I am. But I sure have a hard time analyzing it.
You should always leave the party 10 minutes before you actually do.
I didn't realize I was working in a family medium.
Every week when my batch of weekly cartoons would go to FedEx, it felt like a small miracle. Then in a few days, it's 'Here we go again.'
I think one thing that's important to maintain is a sense of fear, always doubting yourself... a good dose of insecurity helps your work in some ways.
I'm not into cartoons. That's the irony of it.
The need for an office sort of crept up on me.
If I didn't understand a cartoon in a newspaper, I'd just turn the page.
Cartooning was a good fit for me. And yet now, years later, I almost never think about it.
I actually find a lot of parallels in jazz and cartooning.
I keep thinking someone's gonna show up and say, 'There's been a big mistake. The guy next door is supposed to be drawing the cartoon. Here's your shovel.'
I didn't want to go to school for more than four years, and I didn't know what you did with a bachelor's in biology. So I switched over and got my degree in communications. I regret it now. It was one of the most idiotic things I ever did.
I don't think I'd know if I were sitting next to Charles Schulz on an airplane.
I just get silly inside my head and I start to think about something and in my head I start twisting it around, contorting it and envisioning it in different ways.
I never sat down and said, you know, what the world needs is a good, sick cartoonist.
People get very passionate about saving the whale, but when something like a Florida indigo snake is endangered there are not a lot of people out there holding up placards.
Morbid humor is very valid, even healthy, as long as you don't do it gratuitously.
Don Martin was the one who really stood out. I really always loved his work. He was such a great artist.
I didn't feel that my identity was caught up in being a cartoonist, and that if it stopped I'd stop.
I think I'm maintaining the quality, but internally I'm paying for it.
I love parasites! I can't get enough of them.
Taking a solo on a tune is always a little bit scary.
My first month in syndication, I made about $100. I thought it would be exciting if I ever got up to the level where I could pay my rent.
With my own cartoon, it was just me being goofy by myself, but when it comes to an animated film, you're working with 45 animators and assistant animators. It's a whole different ballgame.
As for the reasons behind my retirement, they mostly center around simple fatigue and a fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer, or at the very least ease into the graveyard of mediocre cartoons.
I never have been able to understand where the humor comes from.
I've drawn some things that have fallen very flat.
