I've Never Met A Cartoonist Who Isn't

My Success Was The Shock Of Recognition, Probably, Rather Than The Quality Of The Work. I Mean, The Quality May Have Been Fine, But There's A Lot Of Fine Work Out There. It Was The Fact That I Was Doing Something That At That Time, Nobody Else Was Doing, Except For Say, Mort Saul Out In San Francisco On The Hungry Eye, And "second City" Was Emerging Out In Chicago. Nothing In Print. It Was Basically Happening In Cabaret And Nothing In Fiction. And Certainly Nothing In New York In Cartoons.

Artists Can Color The Sky Red Because They Know It's Blue. Those Of Us Who Aren't Artists Must Color Things The Way They Really Are Or People Might Think We're Stupid.

I Used To Think I Was Poor. Then They Told Me I Was Not Poor, I Was Needy. They Told Me It Was Self-defeating To Think Of Myself As Needy, I Was Deprived. Then They Told Me Underprivileged Was Overused. I Was Disadvantaged. I Still Do Not Have A Dime But I Have A Great Vocabulary.

I'm Not Sure About That Role Any Longer. The Role Used To Be To Mix Things Up And I Think To A Great Extent It Still Is, But The Quality Of The Work Of The Political Cartoon Has Been Succeeded By The Wisecrack, The Gag Cartoon, So That The Cartoonist Becomes More Of The Equivalent Of The Jay Leno Monologues, Or David Letterman Monologues.

I Didn't Have A Job. Employers Were Afraid Of Losing Their Reputations. I Didn't Have A Reputation. I Had Zilch. So, I Had The Freedom, Which Unemployment Gives You, And That Was To Behave As Badly As I Believed I Should Under The Circumstances. And The Circumstances Were Quite Awful.