Quotes by Lynda Barry

About Lynda Barry:

Lynda Jean Barry is an American cartoonist and author.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Race and class are the easiest divisions. It's very stupid.

Lynda Barry

I grew up in a house that had a whole lot of trouble. As much trouble as you could imagine.

Lynda Barry

I remember my comic strips being called 'new wave.' It bugged me.

Lynda Barry

Kids don't plan to play. They don't go: 'Barbie, Ken, you ready to play? It's gonna be a three-act.'

Lynda Barry

It's much easier to teach writing, because people are less shy about writing. If they're in a group, nobody can see what they're writing. When you're drawing, people get a little more nervous.

Lynda Barry

My childhood is always going to limit me.

Lynda Barry

'What It Is' was based on this class I've been teaching for 10 years - I wanted to write a book about writing that didn't mention stuff like story structure, protagonists, and all those things that we know about only because they already exist in sto...

Lynda Barry

When I was working on 'Freddie,' I had been trying to write it on a computer for many, many years, but that delete button just won't let anything go forward.

Lynda Barry

You keep seeing your picture on posters that you are missing but you're not. That'd be weird, right? Or say you look down at the sidewalk and earthworms are spelling your name. Or you open a peanut bag and the 'hello' is written in your writing on th...

Lynda Barry

Playing and fun are not the same thing, though when we grow up we may forget that and find ourselves mixing up playing with happiness. There can be a kind of amnesia about the seriousness of playing, especially when we played by ourselves.

Lynda Barry

If I didn't try to eavesdrop on every bus ride I take or look for the humor when I go for a walk, I would just be depressed all the time.

Lynda Barry

Humor is such a wonderful thing, helping you realize what a fool you are but how beautiful that is at the same time.

Lynda Barry

When you learn about stories in school, you get it backward. You start to think 'Oh, the reason these things are in stories is because a book said I need to put these things in there.' You need a death, as my husband says, and you need a little sidek...

Lynda Barry

'Good Times' is a story about the loss of innocence, how adults are responsible for their actions but children aren't.

Lynda Barry

When I work on a book, I usually start with a question. And I don't sit around and go 'I need to write a book. What's a good question?' It will be a question that's just clanging around in my head. So for 'What It Is,' it was this idea of 'What is an...

Lynda Barry

I live in constant fear of being fired or dropped for that dark part of my work I can't control.

Lynda Barry

I need to be cheered up a lot. I think funny people are people who need to be cheered up.

Lynda Barry

It's not hard for me to be funny in front of people, but most of that is just horrified nerves taking the form of what makes people laugh, and afterwards I'd always feel dreadfully depressed, kind of self-induced bi-polar disorder.

Lynda Barry

I listen like mad to any conversation taking place next to me just trying to hear why this is funny. Women's restrooms are especially great. I wash my hands twice waiting for people to come in and start talking.

Lynda Barry

My strips are not always funny, and they can be pretty grim at times, and I know I lose readers because of it, but I can't do anything about it - my work is very much connected to something I need to do in order to feel stable.

Lynda Barry

Remember when you were in school and the teacher would put a picture under an overhead projector so you could see it on the wall? God, I loved that. Tellya the truth, I used to look at that beam of light and think it was God.

Lynda Barry

Author Bio

  • NameLynda Barry
  • DescriptionCartoonist
  • BornJanuary 2, 1956
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionCartoonist