Harvey Pekar Quotes

Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

I'm sure someone out there has a workable solution. But what do I know? I make comic books and write about jazz. I do know the difference between right and wrong, though.

Comics are words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.

I think that the so-called average person often exhibits a great deal of heroism in getting through an ordinary day . . .

Since about 1980 Kenny Werner has been one of jazz’s unsung heroes

Every ethnic group thinks they are the chosen ones.

Am I a guy who writes about himself in a comic book, or am I just a character in that book? If I die, will that character keep going, or will he just fade away?

Life is about women, gigs, an' bein' creative.

I realize that I'm pretty flawed, but you know - I haven't killed anybody yet.

As a matter of fact, I deliberately look for the mundane, because I feel these stories are ignored. The most influential things that happen to virtually all of us are the things that happen on a daily basis. Not the traumas.

I felt more alone that week than any. Sometimes I'd feel a body lying next to me like an amputee feels a phantom limb. All I did was think about Jennie Gerhardt and Alice Quinn and all the decades of people I had known. The more I thought, the more I felt like crying. Life seemed so sweet and so sad, and so hard to let go of in the end. But hey, man, every day is a brand new deal, right? Just keep on working and something's bound to turn up.

When you're dead, it robs life of many of it's pleasures

And no business can possibly equate happy workers (community) with profit (effectiveness). Happy workers are much more productive workers and hence contribute to profit, but no organization is formed for the idea of pleasing its employees.

Everybody's like everybody else, and everybody's different from everybody else.

I always wanted praise and I always wanted attention; I won't lie to you. I was a jazz critic and that wasn't good enough for me. I wanted people to write about me, not me about them. So I thought, What could I do? I can't sing, I can't dance, I can't act or anything like that. OK, I can write.

My parents' work ethic amazed me. How could they put in such long hours, day after day? Part of the reason was to keep the family going - to keep me going. I realized that, although we had different values derived from different cultures and wouldn't agree on certain issues, they were good people, incredible people, and I loved and respected them.

People who are readers of fiction aren't particularly interested in comic books.

I thought I had a great opportunity when I started doing my comic book in 1972. I thought there was so much territory to work in.

It makes you feel good to know that there's other people afflicted like you.

I think you can find all the elements that you can find in great literature in mundane experiences.

I decided I was going to tell these stories. I went around and met Crumb. He was the cartoonist. I started realizing comics weren't just kid stuff.

I think comics have far more potential than a lot of people realize.

I met Robert Crumb in 1962; he lived in Cleveland for a while. I took a look at his stuff. Crumb was doing stuff beyond what other writers and artists were doing. It was a step beyond Mad.

I think the people who would be the least interested in my work would be people who read lots of comic books.

I try and write the way things happen. I don't try and fulfill people's wishes