Bill Watterson Quotes

Virtual reality has nothing on Calvin.

You know, maybe we don't need enemies." "Yeah, best friends aree about all I can take.

My problem is that I don't paint ambitiously. It's all catch and release - just tiny fish that aren't really worth the trouble to clean and cook.

Few things are less comforting than a tiger who's up too late.

That's one of the remarkable things about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse.

Obviously the role of comics is changing very fast. On the one hand, comics are widely accepted and taken seriously. On the other hand, the mass media is disintegrating, and audiences are atomizing. I suspect comics will have less widespread cultural impact and make a lot less money.

I hate to think that all my current experiences will someday become stories with no point.

Talking with you is sort of the conversational equivalent of an out of body experience.

The way Calvin's brain is wired, you can almost hear the fuses blowing.

Calvin: Medically speaking:. That's love?!?..... Hobbes: Heck, that happened to me once, but I figured it was cooties!!

You can drag my body to school but my spirit refuses to go.

There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do.

I'm killing time while I wait for life to shower me with meaning and happiness.

Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one.

We all have different desires and needs, but if we don't discover what we want from ourselves and what we stand for, we will live passively and unfulfilled. Sooner or later, we are all asked to compromise ourselves and the things we care about. We define ourselves by our actions. With each decision, we tell ourselves and the world who we are. Think about what you want out of this life, and recognize that there are many kinds of success.

Van Gogh would’ve sold more than one painting if he’d put tigers in them.

That's the difference between me and the rest of the world. Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!

Specifically, I’d like to debate whether cannibalism ought to be grounds for leniency in murders, since it’s less wasteful.

Reading goes faster if you don't sweat comprehension.

I always think of "Popeye" and "Barney Google" as quintessential comic strips in that old rollicky, slapstick way we've sort of lost.

Having an enviable career is one thing. Being a happy person is another

CALVIN: As usual goodness hardly puts up a fight.

They can't chain my spirit! My spirit runs free! Walls can't contain it! Laws can't restrain it! Authority has no power over it!

Art has to keep moving and discovering to stay alive.

Obviously the great thing about this job is the complete freedom of the schedule. So long as I meet the deadline, they don't care when I work or how I work.

There are no restrictions of taste, approach, or subject matter. The gatekeepers are gone, so the prospect for new and different voices is exciting. Or at least it will be if anyone reads them. And it will be even more exciting if anyone pays for them. It's hard to charge admission without a gate.

In the short term, it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. But in the VERY long term, I know which will make better memories.

A REAL job is a job you hate.

Animation, by necessity, is a team sport, and the fewer people with input into my work, the better I like it.

Calvin: Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we can think faster than we speak? Hobbes: Probably so we can think twice.

What fun is it being cool if you can't wear a sombrero?

It's surprising how hard we'll work when the work is done just for ourselves.

Good friends are hard to come by... I need more money.

My guess is that the editor [Cincinnati Post] wanted his own Jeff MacNelly (a Pulitzer winner at 24), and I didn't live up to his expectations. My Cincinnati days were pretty Kafkaesque.

People always make the mistake of thinking art is created for them. But really, art is a private language for sophisticates to congratulate themselves on their superiority to the rest of the world. As my artist’s statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance.

I chose to tell the story visually, so that anyone of any age, from any country, could understand it.

Reality continues to ruin my life.

From now on, I'll connect the dots my own way.

Let's say that life is this square of the sidewalk. We are born at this crack and we die at that crack. Now we find ourselves somewhere inside the square and in the process of walking outside of it. Suddenly, we realize our time in here is fleeting. Is our quick experience here pointless? Does anything we say or do in here really matter? Have we done anything important? Have we been happy? Have we made the most of these precious few footsteps?

Dad: Honey, have you seen my glasses? I can"t find them. Mom: I haven't seen them. Calvin: (with glasses, to Dad) Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!

There's more to this world than just people, you know.

The writing doesn't distract me while I'm drawing and vice versa. I can devote my full attention to each.

Calvin: Know what I pray for? Hobbes: What? Calvin: The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference.

Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon, everything's different.

I wonder if you can refuse to inherit the world.

People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

As you can see, I have memorized this utterly useless piece of information long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You’ve taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.

Planet Bog - Pools of toxic chemicals bubble under a choking atmosphere of poisonous gases... but aside from that, it's not much like Earth.