Robert Crumb Quotes
-
The work itself is what motivates me. I like my own stuff, you know? I like the way it looks. I do it to please myself first.
→ -
The French hold onto their traditions. I was always so alienated in America. My work was this constant reaction to that.
→ -
Everything that is strong in me has gone into my art work.
→ -
Violence begets violence, and then you get leaders who are violent men. And you don't want that.
→ -
Killing yourself is a major commitment, it takes a kind of courage. Most people just lead lives of cowardly desperation. It's kinda half suicide where you just dull yourself with substances.
→ -
I lose patience with long stories. I get people who go, "Crumb, do some long stories, do a graphic novel." Novel-schmovel.
→ -
Your vigor for life appalls me.
→ -
Yeah, I was a child of American popular culture.
→ -
There's many heroic underappreciated investigative journalists.
→ -
I'm into old-time music, I'm not very interested in modern, popular music at all. And if I'm really into some particular old-time musician, some fiddler or banjo player, I'm always dying of curiosity to see what they look like.
→ -
When I listen to old music, that's one of the few times that I actually have a kind of love for humanity.
→ -
The comics are where all the crazy subconscious stuff comes out.
→ -
Drawing is a way for me to articulate things inside myself that I can't otherwise grasp.
→ -
Hey kids, while you're out smashing the state keep a smile on your lips and a song in your hearts.
→ -
The Bible was not written for entertainment purposes, so it's a real hodgepodge and a compendium of all kinds of stuff.
→ -
Some things I won't do for any amount of money. That's so demoralizing and goes against every principle that I hold. It's like, okay, some rich people can buy me because I'm a talented guy. They can buy talent. You can't buy it for yourself, but you can buy other people's talent to serve your purposes. And once an artist does that, he becomes like a plaything of the rich. You know, some of these wealthy collectors have paid lots of money for artwork that I already did, but I didn't do it with the intention of catering to them.
→ -
When I come up against the real world, I just vacillate.
→ -
Most of my adult life I had this towering contempt for America.
→ -
I use photos a lot for drawing people and personalities, but they're almost never photos that I've taken.
→ -
They can buy talent. You can't buy it for yourself, but you can buy other people's talent to serve your purposes. And once an artist does that, he becomes like a plaything of the rich.
→ -
I knew I was weird by the time I was four. I knew I wasn't like other boys. I knew I was more fearful. I didn't like the rough and tumble most boys were into. I knew I was a sissy.
→ -
As a kid growing up in the 1950s I became acutely aware of the changes taking place in American culture and I must say I didn't much like it. I witnessed the debasement of architecture, and I could see a decline in the quality of things like comic books and toys, things made for kids. Old things seemed to have more life, more substance, more humanity in them.
→ -
You can't make everybody love you. It's an exercise in futility, and it's probably not even a good idea to try.
→ -
The only burning passion I'm sure I have is the passion for sex.
→ -
I draw the line at some things. Some things I won't do for any amount of money. Like for instance, there's a couple of CEOs of very large corporations that offered me lots of money to do special pictures for them. And I just refused to do that. Even if it was a million dollars I wouldn't do it.
→ -
I was a child of American popular culture. All I did as a kid was what I could get at the local supermarket or the dime store. Nothing else was seen. Plus what was on television, or the movie theatre. That was it.
→ -
At least I hate myself as much as I hate anybody else.
→ -
I still can't spend a lot of money on records at collector prices. There's something in me that just won't allow me to do that. But I will trade my artwork, which I know is worth thousands of dollars.
→ -
I'm an outsider. I will always be an outsider.
→ -
They were just snapshots, nothing special, nothing particularly artistic. They were used for utility purposes. (On photographs of mundane streetscapes he had Stanley Something-or-other take in Sacramento in 1988 to serve as backgrounds to his cartoons. People don't draw it, all this crap, people don't focus attention on it because it's ugly, it's bleak, it's depressing... But, this is the world we live in; I wanted my work to reflect that, the background reality of urban life. )
→
Related Authors
-
Daniel Clowes Cartoonist -
Shia LaBeouf Actor -
Craig Thompson Novelist -
Franz Kafka Writer -
Ralph Bakshi Animator -
Jack Kirby Artist -
Harvey Pekar Film writer -
David Lynch Film director -
Charles Bukowski Poet -
Chris Ware Artist -
Art Spiegelman Cartoonist -
David Mazzucchelli Writer -
Hope Davis Actress -
Paul Giamatti Actor -
Marjane Satrapi Novelist -
Frank Miller Writer -
Alison Bechdel Cartoonist -
Terry Zwigoff Filmmaker -
Will Eisner Cartoonist -
Alan Moore Writer