I don't think anyone has written a great graphic novel.

I think Maus I is better than Maus II. The standard here is whether or not it's as good as a great book of prose literature and by that standard, no, it's not that great.

The best thing about being a cartoonist is to walk into a bar or someone's apartment and they don't know you, but they've taped one of your pieces up.

Silk Road to Ruin has all the analysis and it's structured very well. I rely on my notes more and I use direct quotes. But there's nothing like writing about it right away.

When I put together a graphic novel, I don't think about literary prose. I think about storytelling.

But now that I'm cartooning full-time, I'm more of an observer. I'm talking to people who are experiencing these things. But it's not like being in the trenches.

Even though I'm a leftist. I think the left eats its own.

Most people don't know how to tell stories.

On the ground, Pakistan is the most virulently anti-American state on the planet.

I'm a better editorial cartoonist by default because so many editorial cartoonists out there are so awful.

Comics are too big. You can't say any kind or genre of comics is better than another. You can say so subjectively. But to say it like it's objective is wrong. It's wrong morally, because it cuts out stuff that's good.

When you have birds you stare at them a lot and their eyes are recessed on their head. When they look at something they tilt their head in a quizzical expression.

The experts who managed the original Marshall Plan say Afghanistan needs a commitment of at least $5 to $10 billion over 5 to 10 years, coupled with occupation forces of 250,000 Allied soldiers to keep the peace throughout the country.

I don't think anyone has written a great graphic novel.

If I had to rank my skills, I have a long way to go before I can write a good graphic novel.

At this point, American workers are pretty respectful of the bosses they loathe.

Conservative humor is frankly harder than liberal humor. You get points for just being liberal. You can get more points if you make fun of your own side sometimes.

I think Dilbert is actually a radical strip.

When you do a cartoon based on news headlines, you do it based on incomplete information.

I think we're the first generation to successfully integrate American society.

Money stress is what used to remind me of my Dad most.

It's a perfectly valid position to not like Shakespeare.

I think jazz is good, but I don't enjoy it. It's not for me.

There was an honorable tradition of using anonymous sources that was ruined by Jayson Blair.

The first step to stringing the boss up from a lamppost is saying the boss is a moron.

I'm a better polemicist in prose.

Anyone should be able to read comics.

Orrin Hatch was the keynote speaker at the last meeting of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He sought me out because he was a fan. I was thinking he had confused me with someone else.

Anyway, I tried liking Jimmy Corrigan but I couldn't.

I never consciously do any work directly influenced from any movie, unless I'm doing a parody.

Trying to rebuild Afghanistan on the cheap has left the country in the hands of warlords and an impotent Northern Alliance puppet regime that runs Kabul and nothing else.

Up until 1995, I still had a day job that I hated. I was still personally involved in things in the 90s.

I became, suddenly, not just a Muslim in faith. I became a Muslim in politics. Somebody whose politics were pre-defined by one interpretation of Islam.

Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing.

People walk differently in high heels. Your body sways to a different kind of tempo.

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.

States, virtually all of them, have a constitutional requirement to operate on a balanced budget.

Ju jitsu is very Buddhist. All that we fear we hold close to ourselves to survive. So if you're drowning and you see a corpse floating by, hang on to it because it will rescue you.

Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.

The significance of man is not in what he attains but in what he longs to attain.

And the strongest trust is built by the smallest actions the keeping of the little promises. It is the constant truthfulness the continued dependability the remembrance of minor things which most inspire confidence and faith.

Everything about starting out in comedy is pride-swallowing, from handing out fliers to bombing in front of audiences.

An indifference to suffering makes humans inhuman.

Our study showed that the false memory and the genuine memory are based on very similar, almost identical, brain mechanisms. It is difficult for the false memory bearer to distinguish between them.

'Death with dignity' is our society's expression of the universal yearning to achieve a graceful triumph over the stark and often repugnant finality of life's last sputterings. But the fact is, death is not a confrontation. It is simply an event in the sequence of nature's ongoing rhythms.

I often find the smaller, independent films are much more rewarding than the bigger stuff, but you do the bigger stuff because it's a business, and you've got to show your face a bit, get yourself around.

Use, do not abuse... neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

Generally, I like making my own mistakes and learning from them because that's what I think life is about.

I started singing for The Phantom in January, and we started filming in October and I sang all the way through to the next June. In fact, I was singing for about two months before I even knew I had the role.