Quotations

«Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their heads. I pragmatically turn my whims into principles.»

«I was reading about how countless species are being pushed toward extinction by man's destruction of forests. . . . Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.»

«Let it to a girl to take the fun out of sex discrimination.»

«Childhood is short and maturity is forever.»

«Hobbes got all my better qualities (with a few quirks from our cats), and Calvin my ranting, escapist side. Together, they're pretty much a transcript of my mental diary ... it's pretty startling to reread these strips and see my personality exposed so plainly right there on paper. I meant to disguise that better.»

«[A little more than a year after the comic entered syndication, it was collected in a book that became a bestseller -- which helped the newspaper client list grow faster.] I was not prepared for the resulting attention, ... Besides disliking the diminishment of privacy and the inhibiting quality of feeling watched, I valued my anonymous, boring life. In fact, I didn't see how I could write honestly without it. A year later, I moved out west, got an unlisted phone number, stopped giving interviews, and tried to fly as low under the radar as possible. Of course, some reporters took this as a personal challenge to intrude, but in general, my quiet life let me concentrate on my work.»

«I didn't want 'Calvin and Hobbes' to coast into halfhearted repetition, as so many long-running strips do. I was ready to pursue different artistic challenges, work at a less frantic pace ... and start restoring some balance to my life.»

«Why should I have to work for everything?! It's like saying I don't deserve it!»

«[Calvin: A 6-year-old boy who thinks like a grown-up and fantasizes like a child.] Calvin is very frenetic, ... The thing I like about him is that he's very curious, and everything in the world is new to him.»

«[Calvin's parents: Unnamed] because as far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad, ... I've tried to keep them realistic, with a reasonable sense of humor about having a kid like Calvin.»