Robert Crumb Quotes

Hey kids, while you're out smashing the state keep a smile on your lips and a song in your hearts.

Your vigor for life appalls me.

The French hold onto their traditions. I was always so alienated in America. My work was this constant reaction to that.

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 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.

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.

Drawing is a way for me to articulate things inside myself that I can't otherwise grasp.

The Bible was not written for entertainment purposes, so it's a real hodgepodge and a compendium of all kinds of stuff.

The only burning passion I'm sure I have is the passion for sex.

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 didn't invent anything; it's all there in the culture; it's not a big mystery. I just combine my personal experience with classic cartoon stereotypes.

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.

Everything that is strong in me has gone into my art work.

You don’t have journalists over there anymore, what they have is public relations people. That’s what they have over in America now. Two-hundred and fifty thousand people in public relations. And a dwindling number of actual reporters and 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.

There's some connection between visual images and music. But there's plenty of old records where I have no idea what the band looked like, or even what sort of context the music was played in.

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.

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.

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.

Most of my adult life I had this towering contempt for America.

I don't do album covers or CD covers for groups or musicians I don't like or have no interest in.

I felt so painfully isolated that I vowed I would get revenge on the world by becoming a famous cartoonist.

There's many heroic underappreciated investigative journalists.

I lose patience with long stories. I get people who go, "Crumb, do some long stories, do a graphic novel." Novel-schmovel.

The comics are where all the crazy subconscious stuff comes out.

When I listen to old music, that's one of the few times that I actually have a kind of love for humanity.

Throwaway pens are no good - I never liked them. I've tried them all.

I use photos a lot for drawing people and personalities, but they're almost never photos that I've taken.

Some of the 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. I think part of the reason my work is attractive to people like that is because it doesn't cater to them.

The fine-art world knows very little about the cartoon world.

Violence begets violence, and then you get leaders who are violent men. And you don't want that.

I guess I didn't enjoy drawing very much. It was like homework.

I'm just a negative person, a deeply negative person. I see the worst aspects of everything.

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. )

When I come up against the real world, I just vacillate.

You can't make everybody love you. It's an exercise in futility, and it's probably not even a good idea to try.

When people say 'What are underground comics?' I think the best way you can define them is just the absolute freedom involved... we didn't have anyone standing over us.

I couldn't find any good pictures in magazines of ordinary modern street corners in America, so I persuaded this guy I knew in Sacramento - Stanley Something-or-other - to spend a day with me driving around just to take snapshots.

Yeah, I was a child of American popular culture.

I always had a sketchbook with me when I was young. I was hiding behind it, basically, hiding behind drawing because I couldn't cope with people in real life; I was very shy and very nervous around people.