Lynda Barry

Dear Anyone Who Finds This, Do not blame the drugs.

The groove is so mysterious. We're born with it and we lose it and the world seems to split apart before our eyes into stupid and cool. When we get it back, the world unifies around us, and both stupid and cool fall away.I am grateful to those who are keepers of the groove. The babies and the grandmas who hang on to it and help us remember when we forget that any kind of dancing is better than no dancing at all.

What is an idea made of? Of future, past and also meanwhile.

There are certain children who are told they are too sensitive, and there are certain adults who believe sensitivity is a problem that can be fixed in the way that crooked teeth can be fixed and made straight. And when these two come together you get a fairytale, a kind of story with hopelessness in it.I believe there is something in these old stories that does what singing does to words. They have transformational capabilities, in the way melody can transform mood.They can't transform your actual situation, but they can transform your experience of it. We don't create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay. I believe we have always done this, used images to stand and understand what otherwise would be intolerable.

What year is it in your imagination?

It is true that I am a person with black pockets of evil and hatred in my heart. There are underground places inside of me

Something can only become an illusion after disillusionment. Before that, it is something real.

You may be a lady but you are still the man!

You have to be willing to spend time making things for no known reason.

The library was open for one hour after school let out. I hid there, looking at art books and reading poetry.

My goal on my bucket list is to write a romantic comedy movie.

The minute you understand racism, you're responsible for being racist. It's like eating from the tree of knowledge.

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.

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.

If it is your time, love will track you down like a cruise missile.

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

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.

I do love to eavesdrop. It's inspirational, not only for subject matter but for actual dialogue, the way people talk.