Stephan Pastis Quotes

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Stephan Pastis

Profession : Cartoonist

Birth : January 16, 1968

If somebody is not on the same page with me humor wise, I can't give them that.

Stephan Pastis

Brits have a better sense of humor in most ways. It's darker, more cutting.

Stephan Pastis

Maybe the bar is low, but most of the strips that are 50, 60, 70 years old that are on their second or third generation of artists, the humor is pretty bland. There are others by people that were raised on 'Family Guy' or 'South Park' that are edgier. Mine's not as edgy as those, but it's edgier than 'Beetle Bailey.'

Stephan Pastis

I never feel burdened or overwhelmed by my work. People tell you to find something you love for a career, and I have. That makes me feel very lucky.

Stephan Pastis

I like characters like Ignatius Reilly in 'A Confederacy of Dunces' and Ricky Gervais's character in 'The Office.' They think one thing about themselves, but the truth is as far from that as it can be. So I began to think about how to put that kind of character in a book for kids.

Stephan Pastis

The principles of comedy are the principles of comedy. I can hear funny.

Stephan Pastis

You can't just count on becoming a syndicated cartoonist. I actually tried to calculate the odds once, and the best I could come up with is a 1-in-36,000 chance. And the odds of getting hit by lightning are 1 in 7,900 - which kind of shows how long those odds are.

Stephan Pastis

I want a career writing these novels that I can be proud of. And then I want one as a screenwriter.

Stephan Pastis

I do what makes me laugh.

Stephan Pastis

I write for three or four hours and then hopefully I'll have something. Then I draw for the rest of the afternoon... I literally block out Wednesday-Thursday-Friday - I more or less disappear.

Stephan Pastis

Sticking to my schedule, I've gotten over seven months ahead, which allowed me to write a 'Pearls Before Swine' movie script for the big screen.

Stephan Pastis

If you're from a certain generation, you basically learn to read with 'Peanuts.' It's sort of the template for the modern strip. Its influence ceased to be noticed because it's in everything.

Stephan Pastis

I don't like drawing characters facing right. If I tried to do that at a book signing, I'd have to pencil it first.

Stephan Pastis

The wonderful thing about a book is that you have a canvas that is 300 pages wide, and it's all free space. You can make a piece of art as big as you want and whatever shape you want.

Stephan Pastis

You can write a little and can draw a little, but there's necessarily a limitation on both in a comic strip, since it appears in such a tiny space.

Stephan Pastis

Repeats are the absolute soul-crushing killers of the comics page.

Stephan Pastis

We need more cartoonists to truly retire when they retire, and not run repeats.

Stephan Pastis

Thomas, my 15-year-old, is effectively my editor, I've always trusted his voice, more than anybody, on the strip for years. He has one of those ears that's just tuned to the rhythm of humor, so if he says something's not funny, my stomach just hurts because I know he's right, and it's already been drawn.

Stephan Pastis

I have days where the only words I say are to the person making my sandwich at the grocery store.

Stephan Pastis

I think it might surprise the average person how angry people can get over the comics.

Stephan Pastis