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Roz Chast Quotes

Powerful Roz Chast for Daily Growth

One way of paying tribute to my parents was 'bearing witness' as the Quakers do - writing down everything that was happening instead of turning my back on it and pretending that it was all great.

- Roz Chast

Pretending, Back, Bearing, Quakers

I think, especially with my parents, I wanted to remember who they were. I wanted to remember all of it. I didn't want to purge myself of it. I wanted to remember it.

- Roz Chast

Think, Want, I Think, Purge

I think of my drawing style like handwriting: it's a mix of whatever handwriting you're born with, plus bits and pieces you've pilfered from other people around you.

- Roz Chast

Think, Other, I Think, Handwriting

Even if you don't have any dishes, you need a celery dish.

- Roz Chast

Need, Even, Dish, Celery

My parents scrimped and saved all their lives, to the point where my mother used a disgusting old oven mitt that was stained and partly patched together with a skirt I made in seventh grade.

- Roz Chast

Stained, Lives, Oven, Skirt

I love detail, like drawing what's on top of someone's coffee table. Maybe there's a little bowl of butterscotch candies on it, next to the four TV remotes.

- Roz Chast

Love, Next, TV, Coffee Table

There's something about most phobias where there's a tiny, tiny corner where you think this really actually could happen.

- Roz Chast

Think, Happen, Could, Phobias

I don't like going into the basement. I'm always afraid that something's going to blow up.

- Roz Chast

Always, Like, Basement, Blow

I cannot stand superheroes. I do not understand any of its appeal. It has just bored me to death since I was a little kid.

- Roz Chast

Death, Kid, Understand, Superheroes

I've done a lot of death cartoons - tombstones, Grim Reaper, illness, obituaries... I'm not great at analyzing things, but my guess is that maybe the only relief from the terror of being alive is jokes.

- Roz Chast

Death, Terror, Obituaries, Reaper

It cracks me up to see these ads for TV - for Depends or for glue for your dentures. The people in them look 55 with a hint of gray. Where are the people who are falling apart? We don't see that.

- Roz Chast

Falling, Depends, TV, Cracks

When my father died, my mother was still alive. And I think when your second parent dies, there is that shock: 'Oh man, I'm an orphan.' There's also this relief: It's done; it's finished; it's over.

- Roz Chast

Parent, Alive, I Think, Relief

My parents were born in 1912; they graduated from college into the Depression. They kept notebooks of every nickel they spent, and these habits of frugality from having grown up so poor never left them.

- Roz Chast

College, Habits, Frugality, Notebooks

I can't even look at daily comic strips. And I hate sitcoms because they don't seem like real people to me: they're props that often say horrible things to each other, which I don't find funny. I have to feel like they're real people.

- Roz Chast

Feel, Other, Real People, Comic Strips

Grime is not like messiness or some fingerprints on a cabinet; it takes a long time to accumulate.

- Roz Chast

Long Time, Some, Like, Cabinet

I like being able to go grocery shopping and not feel that I'm fighting a thousand people.

- Roz Chast

Go, Grocery Shopping, Like, Shopping

I think when your parents die, it is kind of like a moving sidewalk: you're not just on the sideline and watching them go by. You know, you're going to the same place they are.

- Roz Chast

Die, Think, Sidewalk, Sideline

My works were not - and they still aren't - single panel gags with a punch line underneath them. I like a lot of those cartoons; I just don't draw them.

- Roz Chast

Like, Still, Works, Underneath

Sunday, there's not a lot of structure. I might spend an hour thinking about why I don't exercise, and feeling very guilty about not exercising. I tried running, over 10 years ago. It didn't really take.

- Roz Chast

Why, Very, About, Structure

I'm sure that my parents' behavior has entered my work, I'm sorry to say. I don't think you need to have a difficult childhood to be funny, but it helps.

- Roz Chast

Childhood, Think, Sure, Helps

I've always wanted to learn how to hook rugs. A wonderful artist named Leslie Giuliani taught me how. The nice thing is you can change it as you go along.

- Roz Chast

Learn, Always, Named, Nice Thing

I've had people ask me if it would have been easier to take care of your parents if you had siblings, and I think it's 50/50. I know people who have siblings, and there is a lot of acrimony because somebody always feels that they are doing more than the other person.

- Roz Chast

Doing, Been, Feels, Sibling

The wonderful thing about the cartoon form is it's a combination of words and pictures. You don't have to choose, and the contribution of the two often winds up being greater than the sum of its parts.

- Roz Chast

Words, Cartoon, About, Winds

I don't like holidays. And I don't like crowds of people. I don't like noise.

- Roz Chast

Holidays, Like, Crowds, Noise

I always imagined my little cartoons on plates for some reason.

- Roz Chast

Reason, Some, Always, Plates

I have an African gray parrot; her name is Eli. We thought she was a boy. And a blue-streaked lory named Marco. He's 10. And a yellow and green parakeet, Petey. He's very cute, but he's getting old.

- Roz Chast

Thought, Very, Named, Getting Old

Being female was just one more way I felt different and weird. I was also a young 'un, and also my cartoons were not like typical 'New Yorker' cartoons.

- Roz Chast

New, Young, Like, Female

I used to think of the cartoons as a magazine within a magazine. First you go through and read all the cartoons, and then you go back and read the articles.

- Roz Chast

Think, Through, Read, Articles

I think that children's books should be censored not for references to sex but for references to diseases. I mean, who didn't think after reading 'Madeline' that they were going to get appendicitis?

- Roz Chast

Think, References, I Think, Censored

For me, drawing was an outlet. No one in school said, 'Oh, she can do sports,' or, 'She's pretty,' but I could draw.

- Roz Chast

Sports, Pretty, Could, Outlet

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