Cartoonist

I didn't want to go to school for more than four years, and I didn't know what you did with a bachelor's in biology. So I switched over and got my degree in communications. I regret it now. It was one of the most idiotic things I ever did.

You know those little snow globes that you shake up? I always thought my brain was sort of like that. You know, where you just give it a shake and watch what comes out and shake it again. It's like that.

My future plans are hazy, and I've yet to experience how much cartooning is in my blood and therefore how much I'll miss it. But I have some other interests, especially in music, and I will probably take the opportunity to delve into those things more deeply.

Great moments in science: Einstein discovers that time is actually money.

I think I'm maintaining the quality, but internally I'm paying for it.

I never sat down and said, you know, what the world needs is a good, sick cartoonist.

Don Martin was the one who really stood out. I really always loved his work. He was such a great artist.

Morbid humor is very valid, even healthy, as long as you don't do it gratuitously.

I keep thinking someone's gonna show up and say, 'There's been a big mistake. The guy next door is supposed to be drawing the cartoon. Here's your shovel.'

I'm not into cartoons. That's the irony of it.

I've always thought the word cow was funny. And cows are sort of tragic figures. Cows blur the line between tragedy and humor.

Sometimes I'm convinced that one day I'm going to draw the cartoon that offends everyone, and that'll be the end.

A long time ago, I became aware that many of us have a tendency to lump nature into simplistic categories, such as what we consider beautiful or ugly, important or unimportant. As human a thing as that is to do, I think it often leads us to misunderstand the respective roles of life forms and their interconnectedness.

The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression.

The daily calendar seemed, to me, like a kind of cartoon black hole, and you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that that couldn't be sustained indefinitely. That's why I pulled the plug on that one after the '02 edition. Kind of a preemptive strike.

On Career Day in high school, you don't walk around looking for the cartoon guy.

I didn't feel that my identity was caught up in being a cartoonist, and that if it stopped I'd stop.

You should always leave the party 10 minutes before you actually do.

Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.

I was so intrigued by insects and things that crawled or flew - I could spend hours by myself in a vacant lot.