David Rees Quotes
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I'm interested in the structure of art and how it works. And the content is also interesting, but I don't want to keep the same structure and just plug in new content every week.
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I like feeling like I'm discovering something new. That's really a special feeling and also, you don't have it that often. At least, I don't. Maybe I'm not creative enough.
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Any working cartoonist will tell you this, anybody who's working in a creative field: at some point, it's a job. You have deadlines. I think, for over a year, I refused to make them for publications, because I only wanted to make them when I wanted to make them. But at some point, I was like, "This is crazy, you have an opportunity to be a professional cartoonist.
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To me, if you're lucky enough to make stuff that people will pay money for, do a good job. Really do a good job. Especially if you're talking about real stuff, like terror atrocities and human rights abuses and pencil-sharpening techniques.
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I'm not a professional comedian. Nobody comes to my comedy shows. That's just a little hobby.
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People think, "Wow, people in America have so much money, they're sending hundreds of pencils to this guy." I don't think those people realize that most people who are buying these pencils are buying them as art objects or conversation pieces.
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Once you use a toothbrush to clean a pencil sharpener, you should no longer use it to clean your teeth.
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Nobody could be a professional cartoonist, because you have to do something you don't like to do in order to be a responsible adult and pay the rent.
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I don't even drink Coke. It tastes like robot sweat.
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I liked sharpening pencils and I was like, "Oh, I wonder if I could get paid to do it." And I figured it out and I did it.
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I wanted to get paid to sharpen pencils originally just because I thought it would be fun.
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Everyone has pencils in their house, no matter how hip and contemporary they are.
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Obviously, I never had to sketch anything out. To me, that was the appeal of working with clip art, working digitally. You make it and it's done.
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I never thought I would make a living as a pencil-sharpener. The first goal was: I don't want to lose money. And then the goal was: I want to see if 100 people buy my pencils. I just kept upping the benchmarks.
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I felt really conflicted about making money off stuff that's creatively satisfying.
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I talked to people in the pencil industry and I talked to people as I was sharpening their pencils about the frustrations they have with pencils, so I really did do my research and I do know more about pencils than most people.
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Just because something makes you smile or laugh ... doesn't mean it's a joke.
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The type of pop culture that is honestly very moving and powerful to me is [when artists] do their homework. They make it real.
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I had good relationships with stores. And I was like, "All right, I'll self-publish it. But I'm only going to do 1,000."
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I feel like really thinking about art and really appreciating it and learning the language of it just makes you more of a connoisseur. I believe that.
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I don't like when performers rag on their ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend in absentia. If they're not there, it just feels rude... I'm never going to say anything personal about myself on stage. That's my new goal.
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I take pop culture really seriously, I think it's really important, and the stuff that I make...I don't want it to be insubstantial, even if it's about something wacky, like sharpening pencils. I feel like I owe it to myself and I owe it to people who are really interested in pencils and I owe it to anybody to do my due diligence and give them something real.
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I've never been good at self-promotion. And my URL is really obscure. And for years and years, there was nothing about me on my website.
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Talking about my personal life onstage, I've realized I'm not one of those comics who can do that. I can allude to it but I don't want to be a confessional performer.
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The way you make money is to do something you don't like to do. And that's how you know you're a virtuous person.
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I hate self-publishing; it's a real drag and it takes up a lot of space.
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I've been really surprised about a lot of the negative comments about artisanal pencil sharpening. Like, it really rubs some people the wrong way.
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I like to do things that are new, where I feel the sense of discovery.
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I just wanted a really simple, dramatic way so that fans, people who were reading my comic, would be like, "This is something different." Just to flag it, almost.
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I don't want to be one of these people who's like, "Man, I don't know where my ideas come from and I don't know why this works."
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