Gary Larson Quotes & Sayings

He has been known by many names: Lucifer, Beelzabub, Belial, the Prince of Lies, Satan, and at a party once an obnoxious drunk kept calling him "Dude." — Gary Larson

If a tree falls in the woods, and nobody is around to hear it, and it hits a mime, does anyone care? — Gary Larson

The message is not so much that the worms will inherit the Earth, but that all things play a role in nature, even the lowly worm. — Gary Larson

Hot oil! We need hot oil! ... Forget the water balloons! — Gary Larson

Of course, living in an all-glass house has its disadvantages ... but you should see the birds smack it. — Gary Larson

The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression. — Gary Larson

The idea for any cartoon (my experience, anyway) is rarely spontaneous. Good ideas usually evolve out of pretty lame ones, and vice versa. — Gary Larson

I just get silly inside my head and I start to think about something and in my head I start twisting it around, contorting it and envisioning it in different ways. — Gary Larson

I've always considered music stores to be the graveyards of musicians. — Gary Larson

Things can be low on the food chain, but that doesn't mean they're lowly ... — Gary Larson

Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth. — Gary Larson

We judge plants and animals by whether they're entertaining to us. We ... — Gary Larson

Charters give public school teachers the flexibility to design programs to the individual student needs. They no longer have to go to a distant bureaucracy to ask for permission. By being allowed to make their own decisions the teachers are able to create strong partnerships with parents. — Gary Larson

The problem, Mr. Fudd, is that you've been having a sublimal effect on everyone in the factory. We're proud of our product, Mr. Fudd, and there's no company in the world that build a finer skwoo dwivuh ... Dang! Now you got me doing it! — Gary Larson

I think I'm maintaining the quality, but internally I'm paying for it. — Gary Larson

What is that mountain goat doing way up here in the clouds? — Gary Larson

You should always leave the party 10 minutes before you actually do. — Gary Larson

Great moments in science: Einstein discovers that time is actually money. — Gary Larson

I don't know where my ideas come from. I will admit, however, that one key ingredient is caffeine. I get a couple cups of coffee into me and weird things just start to happen. — Gary Larson

People try to look for deep meanings in my work. I want to say, 'They're just cartoons, folks. You laugh or you don't.' Gee, I sound shallow. But I don't react to current events or other stimuli. I don't read or watch TV to get ideas. My work is basically sitting down at the drawing table and getting silly. — Gary Larson

The fuel light's on, Frank! We're all going to die! Wait, wait ... Oh, my mistake - that's the intercom light. — Gary Larson

Theme-park approach to nature. We judge plants and animals by whether they're entertaining to us. We gravitate toward animals and plants that are big, dramatic, beautiful and at eye-level. — Gary Larson

I actually find a lot of parallels in jazz and cartooning. — Gary Larson

If you're gonna shoot an elephant Mr. Schneider, you better be prepared to finish the job. — Gary Larson

I never liked my own species. On why so many of his comics are about animals, in an interview. — Gary Larson

Thunderstick? ... You actually said, 'Thunderstick?' ... That, my friend is a Winchester 30.06. — Gary Larson

Every week when my batch of weekly cartoons would go to FedEx, it felt like a small miracle. Then in a few days, it's 'Here we go again.' — Gary Larson

I never liked my own species. — Gary Larson

My future plans are hazy, and I've yet to experience how much cartooning is in my blood and therefore how much I'll miss it. But I have some other interests, especially in music, and I will probably take the opportunity to delve into those things more deeply. — Gary Larson

By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry' ... — Gary Larson

Wait a minute! This is grass! We've been eating grass! — Gary Larson

The picture's pretty bleak, gentlemen ... The world's climates are changing, the mammals are taking over, and we all have a brain about the size of a walnut. — Gary Larson

I keep thinking someone's gonna show up and say, 'There's been a big mistake. The guy next door is supposed to be drawing the cartoon. Here's your shovel.' — Gary Larson

I think one thing that's important to maintain is a sense of fear, always doubting yourself ... a good dose of insecurity helps your work in some ways. — Gary Larson

The great thing about this jungle of ours is that anyone of you could grow up to be Lord of the apes. — Gary Larson

This was more than just a cow - this was an entire career I was looking at. — Gary Larson

I don't believe in the concept of hell, but if I did I would think of it as filled with people who were cruel to animals. — Gary Larson

On Career Day in high school, you don't walk around looking for the cartoon guy. — Gary Larson

You know those little snow globes that you shake up? I always thought my brain was sort of like that. You know, where you just give it a shake and watch what comes out and shake it again. It's like that. — Gary Larson

A long time ago, I became aware that many of us have a tendency to lump nature into simplistic categories, such as what we consider beautiful or ugly, important or unimportant. As human a thing as that is to do, I think it often leads us to misunderstand the respective roles of life forms and their interconnectedness. — Gary Larson

You always hear a headline like this, 'Man Killed By Shark', you never hear it from the other perspective, 'Man Swims in Shark Infested Waters, Forgets He's Shark Food'. — Gary Larson

Welcome to Hell. Here's your accordion. — Gary Larson

The daily calendar seemed, to me, like a kind of cartoon black hole, and you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that that couldn't be sustained indefinitely. That's why I pulled the plug on that one after the '02 edition. Kind of a preemptive strike. — Gary Larson

It is a known fact that the sheep that give us steel wool have no natural enemies. — Gary Larson

Cartooning was a good fit for me. And yet now, years later, I almost never think about it. — Gary Larson