Robert Crumb Quotes

When I listen to old music, that’s one of the few times that I actually have a kind of love for humanity.

In my midteens I went through a brief stage of religious fanaticism, but it was very much about just saying prayers and stuff like that, reciting rosaries and spending a lot of time on that kind of Catholic ritual.

In the fall of 1968, I became attractive to women. One day I was an ignored schlub in the street, then suddenly all these good-looking women were interested in me.

We were always drawing comics as kids. My brother Charles made me draw comics. I was very much under his domination. He was actually a much stronger artistic visionary than I was.

I always had a sketchbook with me when I was young. I was hiding behind it, basically, hiding behind drawing because I couldn’t cope with people in real life; I was very shy and very nervous around people.

At least I hate myself as much as I hate anybody else.

Killing yourself is a major commitment, it takes a kind of courage. Most people just lead lives of cowardly desperation. It’s kinda half suicide where you just dull yourself with substances.

Hey kids, while you’re out smashing the state keep a smile on your lips and a song in your hearts.

I moved further and further away from mass entertainment. The sexual element became increasingly sinister and bizarre. Don’t blame me! The bastards drove me to it! They all backed off after that!

I have always had an abiding interest in that type of female anatomy.

Yeah, I was a child of American popular culture.

You don’t have journalists over there anymore, what they have is public relations people. That’s what they have over in America now. Two-hundred and fifty thousand people in public relations. And a dwindling number of actual reporters and journalists.

I felt so painfully isolated that I vowed I would get revenge on the world by becoming a famous cartoonist.

The French hold onto their traditions. I was always so alienated in America. My work was this constant reaction to that.

The comics are where all the crazy subconscious stuff comes out.

You don’t have to be a Fundamentalist Christian to be interested in the Bible. It’s really a fascinating mythology.

When I go back to America, after a few days I am once again filled with this kind of angry alienation and disgust with this thing there that America has got – you have no idea how pervasive it is there. The public relations and propaganda put out by the corporate mono-culture there is so pervasive.

Your vigor for life appalls me.

I do covers for CDs and LPs of music that I like, reissues of old-time music, and then I’m inspired to make some kind of drawing based on this love of the music. I don’t do album covers or CD covers for groups or musicians I don’t like or have no interest in.

Some things I won’t do for any amount of money. Like for instance, there’s a couple of CEOs of very large corporations that offered me lots of money to do special pictures for them. And I just refused to do that. Even if it was a million dollars I wouldn’t do it.

People still make me nervous, but gradually over the years I’ve developed kind of like a public personality, so I can talk. I have my spiel, I have my stories.

Throwaway pens are no good – I never liked them. I’ve tried them all.

I’m an outsider. I will always be an outsider.

I draw the line at some things. Some things I won’t do for any amount of money. Like for instance, there’s a couple of CEOs of very large corporations that offered me lots of money to do special pictures for them. And I just refused to do that. Even if it was a million dollars I wouldn’t do it.

The Bible was not written for entertainment purposes, so it’s a real hodgepodge and a compendium of all kinds of stuff.

I’m into old-time music; I’m not very interested in modern, popular music at all. And if I’m really into some particular old-time musician, some fiddler or banjo player, I’m always dying of curiosity to see what they look like. So there’s some connection between visual images and music.

The only burning passion I’m sure I have, is the passion for sex.

When I come up against the real world, I just vacillate.

I was raised Catholic and I went to church until I was 16. I went through a phase when I was 15 of being quite fanatically Catholic. I was going to church a lot, receiving communion, saying the Rosary, praying, all that stuff. But when I started scrutinizing it, it just fell apart so quickly.