Quotes from Harvey Pekar

I'm trying to get every man involved in art, into experimental music, or painting, or novel-writing.

Of course I don't think I have it made by any means. I'm too insecure, obsessive and paranoid for that.

I wake up every morning in a cold sweat, regardless of how well things went the day before. And put that I said that in a somewhat but not completely tongue-in-cheek way.

There hasn't been enough change in comics to suit me. I don't know why exactly.

I like to go back over history and check out what people have written and whether I agree with it or not.

I was sort of on a mission with 'American Splendor.' I wanted to try to prove that comics could do things. I wanted to expand them beyond superheroes and talking animals. And I knew that was going to take a long time. But I just started writing an autobiography about my quotidian life.

It makes you feel good to know that there's other people afflicted like you.

I think you can find all the elements that you can find in great literature in mundane experiences.

Plays have been made of my comics.

I'm from the beatnik generation, where everybody wanted to be a poet or writer or something. And at that time, I was a jazz critic, and I was always thinking, theorizing about what makes great art or what's important in art.

Cleveland has a very bad reputation, but there's a lot of stuff that's left over from when there were very wealthy people - the Art Museum and a world class symphony that's still world class.

Sometimes I want to convey something complex philosophically, and sometimes I just want to portray myself in a situation that I think other people have been in many times, but it hasn't been written about much.

I think comics have far more potential than a lot of people realize.

I always wanted praise, and I always wanted attention; I won't lie to you. I was a jazz critic, and that wasn't good enough for me. I wanted people to write about me, not me about them. So I thought, 'What could I do? I can't sing, I can't dance, I can't act or anything like that. OK, I can write.'

Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

I continue to be disappointed that people don't try and diversify the kind of work they are doing in comics.

I really don't have a lot in common with the people who attend the Comic Con. It's like assuming that all people who write prose are the same.

I'm always shook up and nervous and I've got the hospital record to prove it.

If there is something to worry about, my mind has a tendency to worry about it. That can cut two ways. It can really keep you on the ball, but if you worry about every little thing, it's not a good use of time and energy.

I was influenced by autobiographical writers like Henry Miller, and I had actually done some autobiographical prose. But I just thought that comics were like virgin territory. There was so much to be done. It excited me. I couldn't draw very well. I could write scripts and storyboard style using stick figures and balloons and captions.

Life is about women, gigs, an' bein' creative.

I have to be a freelance writer for the rest of my life, unless I get some kind of real lucky break. But other than that, I'll always have to work. I always worry about whether my stuff is going to get over. Will they like this, will they like that?

The film's success so far involves winning a couple of prizes at Cannes and Sundance, and getting some very nice reviews in newspapers and magazines. That hasn't had a big impact on my life yet.

It's real easy for me to write a lot of stories. I just go and I live through something, and I go home and write about it. It's that quick.