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Garry Trudeau Quotes

Powerful Garry Trudeau for Daily Growth

When you're young, with less on the line, it's easier to be audacious, to experiment. So I introduced the concerns of my generation - politics, sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, etc. - to the comics page, which for many years caused a rolling furor.

- Garry Trudeau

Politics, Young, Line, Rock-And-Roll

I try to take people one at a time, with all the contradictions and compromises that most of us live with.

- Garry Trudeau

Contradictions, Most, Take, Compromises

The strips about the military do seem to provoke moving and thoughtful responses. It's nice when the strip resonates, but more importantly, I need to know when I'm getting something wrong. The last thing I want to do is contribute to the suffering that wounded warriors already endure.

- Garry Trudeau

Suffering, Resonates, About, Warriors

In their heyday, comics were a dominant force in popular culture, but that's over.

- Garry Trudeau

Over, Dominant, Were, Popular Culture

Becoming the new feminine ideal requires just the right combination of insecurity, exercise, bulimia and surgery.

- Garry Trudeau

New, Becoming, Ideal, Surgery

There's always been some concern that adult subject matter should be quarantined from a page that attracts children. Unlike late at night, when 'South Park' and 'Colbert' are on, impressionable minds are wide awake when the newspaper arrives.

- Garry Trudeau

Newspaper, Some, Been, South Park

Having stretched the boundaries some, I'm perfectly content now to work within them. 'Doonesbury' doesn't need to become 'South Park.' You won't ever see any singing turds.

- Garry Trudeau

Some, Perfectly, South, South Park

I think it's very dangerous for people who do anything that's public to venture on the Web and check out what people are saying about them. Yes, you're bound to find things that will delight you - but you also find things that will make you brood and feel bad about yourself. Why would you intentionally invite that into your life?

- Garry Trudeau

Bad, I Think, Very, Delight

Lives have been altered in fundamental ways, and later, after they acquire a more complete understanding of what goals are actually attainable, many are left facing a lot of pain and frustration. And yet, there's no culture of complaint.

- Garry Trudeau

Been, Fundamental, Facing, Goals

I'm still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to. For me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.

- Garry Trudeau

Still, Passionately, Spent, Well-Spent

That's what fiction writers do: create characters and do terrible things to them for the entertainment of others. If they feel guilty enough, they write happy endings.

- Garry Trudeau

Fiction, Fiction Writers, Endings

Comic-strip artists generally have very modest ambitions. Day to day, we labor to fit together all these little moving parts - a character or two, a few lines of dialogue, framing, pacing, payoff - but we certainly don't think of them adding up over time to some larger portrait of our times.

- Garry Trudeau

Some, Very, Larger, Pacing

I don't want to sound disingenuous here - controversy is obviously good for business, especially if your business is satire. And it does amplify the discussion - in my view, a good thing.

- Garry Trudeau

Business, Here, A Good Thing, Disingenuous

Comic strips are like a public utility. They're supposed to be there 365 days a year, and you're supposed to be able to hit the mark day after day.

- Garry Trudeau

Year, Like, 365 Days, Comic Strips

When you're young, you don't feel iconoclastic - you're just kind of doing what seems natural, what moves you.

- Garry Trudeau

Doing, Young, Natural, Iconoclastic

I've never taken any issue off the table for lack of suitability. Only for lack of imagination.

- Garry Trudeau

Never, Taken, Issue, Table

As far as I'm concerned, there is no subject that's off the table.

- Garry Trudeau

Concerned, Far, Subject, Table

For the most part, editors no longer view 'Doonesbury' as a rolling provocation, which is fine by me. It makes no sense to intentionally antagonize the very people on whose support you most depend.

- Garry Trudeau

Depend, Very, Which, Editors

I try not to second-guess editors; they're the clients, and I have no expectation that my strip is going to make it into every paper every day.

- Garry Trudeau

Every Day, Clients, Going, Editors

In any event, it's not exactly a secret to regular readers what my views on the war are.

- Garry Trudeau

War, Secret, Readers, Regular

I've been trying for some time to develop a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence.

- Garry Trudeau

Trying, Some, Been, Presence

I just happen to have one of those skill sets that allows me to work in my underwear.

- Garry Trudeau

Work, Happen, Sets, Underwear

Medical decisions have been politicized. What doctor wants a state legislator in his consulting room?

- Garry Trudeau

Medical, Doctor, Been, Legislator

I found that not having a public profile was not hurting the work, and it freed me up to be the satirist I wanted to be.

- Garry Trudeau

Found, Public, Having, Hurting

I'm a pointillist, just working my tiny little piece of the canvas. I'm not so good at perspective.

- Garry Trudeau

Good, Canvas, Piece, Little Piece

Commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that outgoing college students should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.

- Garry Trudeau

College, Graduation, Been, Invented

In Palm Springs, they think homelessness is caused by bad divorce lawyers.

- Garry Trudeau

Think, Lawyers, Bad, Divorce

Life is like a movie-since there aren't any commercial breaks, you have to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of it.

- Garry Trudeau

Middle, Commercial, Breaks, Bathroom

I can only try to keep the characters interesting; it's up to the readers to decide whether they're still relevant.

- Garry Trudeau

Interesting, Decide, Still, Readers

Well, it's a humor strip, so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader... But if, in addition, I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me, so much the better.

- Garry Trudeau

Thought, Been, Entertain, Readers

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