Jack Kirby Quotes & Sayings

Of course, mothers were very conventional, everything was very conventional. You had to have approval. — Jack Kirby

I feel like an independent man, and I am. This is the kind of feeling I always wanted. You can rarely get that ... Well, I could rarely get that in the early part of my life. — Jack Kirby

It's not in the draftsmanship, it's in the man. Like I say, a tool is dead. A brush is a dead object. It's in the man. If you want to do it, you do it. — Jack Kirby

I didn't like Army life. I didn't like taking orders. I didn't like discipline. I didn't like being yelled at. You'd get 10 years for punching a sergeant so I couldn't punch a sergeant. — Jack Kirby

I'll never speak to another person without telling the truth. I've been a cruel man in my time, I've been a devious man in my time, like everybody else. I've told lies in my time. But I've seen enough suffering to experiment with the truth. — Jack Kirby

If you're a thorough professional, and they won't let you do a professional job, nobody's going to benefit from it. The people who produce it won't benefit. The people who buy it won't benefit from it. They're going to get a half-assed product. — Jack Kirby

You fought fair. If the other guy wants to fight and you knocked him out, you did your best for him. You didn't want to hurt him any more. — Jack Kirby

All life on Earth is subject to the rumbles and rockings of the parent stucture which has no control over the disastrous effects of its stresses and strains on whatever thrives on its surface. The ambitions and dreams of men are irrelevant to this planetary giant which pursues its own way in its own manner. Man is its child, tenant and still, to this date, its captive. — Jack Kirby

My purpose was what my father's purpose was - to make a living and to have a family. I was going to do the right thing. My dream to me was to have money to support it and to live in the kind of house I liked. — Jack Kirby

In the Army when we had judo classes, out of the class of 27 just me and another guy graduated. I grew to enjoy it because I knew I could do it well. I tried to do everything well. — Jack Kirby

Comics have a caste system - an editor has to act in a certain way, an artist has to be humble. — Jack Kirby

If a carpenter makes a chair that's comfortable for the person who's going to sit in it, he's done his job. If a train engineer gets a train in on time, he's going to make someone happy who's waiting at the station. And if an artist draws the kind of a picture that people are going to enjoy looking at, or he makes a visual story which people are going to enjoy reading, he's done his job. — Jack Kirby

My parents loved me. My father used to carry me around on my shoulders. I know my father loved me. All families love their children, and we were good boys. — Jack Kirby

Speaking as a human being, not as a businessman - the unions are great. The unions are great for the working people because they protect you, but I didn't see them that way as a young man. First of all, the papers would connect them with thee communists - labor unions were communists. — Jack Kirby

I had very high respect for the Pratt Institute, but I thought that I had done my best, and that was not their version of the best. — Jack Kirby

I never had stock endings. I didn't believe in stock endings. To make the [reader] happy was not my objective, but to make the [reader] say, "Yeah, that's what would happen" - that was my objective. — Jack Kirby

I've done my job extremely well. My only beef is that a lot of people have put their fingers in whatever I've done and tried to screw it up, and I've always resented that. — Jack Kirby

Everybody was wary. This was a time when communists marched through the streets, waving flags and shouting. The unions did the same thing so you began to associate them. — Jack Kirby

I feel my characters are valid, my characters are people, my characters have hope. Hope is the thing that'll take us through. — Jack Kirby

Once we've learned enough about the universe we will admit to ourselves that we will never know everything. — Jack Kirby

I wasn't the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted patient people who would work on something forever. I didn't want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done. — Jack Kirby

I don't like to work in an office. I like to work in my house, to be among my own thoughts. The idea is for an editor to let his artist alone, let them be themselves, let them exchange their own ideas and you'll come up with something salable. — Jack Kirby

I hated to fight all the time just to enjoy my day. Fighting wasn't the kind of thing that I enjoyed, but I grew to enjoy it because I did it so long. — Jack Kirby

My ambition was always to be a perfect picture of an American. — Jack Kirby

It's funny how easy it is to point out other peoples mistakes and make our own mistakes seem insignificant. — Jack Kirby

Nobody ever wrote a story for me. I told in every story what was really inside my gut, and it came out that way. My stories began to get noticed because the average reader could associate with them. — Jack Kirby

I feel that my characters all have some part of my character. I feel that they're all me in some way, certainly not in individuality, but they all bear elements of what I feel. — Jack Kirby

I achieved perfection, my type of perfection - visual storytelling. Storytelling was my style. — Jack Kirby

I came out of school one day, and there was this pulp magazine. It was a rainy day, and it was floating toward the sewer in the gutter. So I pick up this pulp magazine, and it's Wonder Stories, and it's got a rocket-ship on the cover, and I'd never seen a rocket-ship. — Jack Kirby

I'm a happy man because whatever I'm doing, I do for myself and I do a little creating here and there for others, and they work out very well. — Jack Kirby

If you're drawing a Western town, you can duplicate that Western town from instinct alone. Some artists may take it from other illustrations or duplicate what you've drawn, but it will never have that gut reality that's instinctive in the artist. — Jack Kirby

It's not letting your anger out that gets people hurt. Its keeping the anger locked up in side that hurts you. — Jack Kirby

I feel that any man that tries, any man that comes out with something we like, is a good man. A man doesn't have to be Leonardo Da Vinci to be sincere. — Jack Kirby

I wouldn't call Adolf Hitler a corporal. Adolf Hitler was looked up to. He was revered almost like a God because he was feared. Adolf Hitler took all of Europe, and my generation had to confront Adolf Hitler. — Jack Kirby

I like entertainment. I'm an innate admirer of good entertainment. I'll listen to MTV, I'll listen to Mozart, I'll listen to anything that has a good element in it. — Jack Kirby

I want to be better than five guys. I was that way when I used to box, I was that way in any sport. I want to compete with five other guys. If I beat five other guys, I'd like to see if I can beat six. — Jack Kirby

I didn't have an affinity for horror. But I knew that commercially it was viable. — Jack Kirby

A climb-out fight is where you climb a building. You climb fire escapes. You climb to the top of the building. You fight on the roof, and you fight all the way down again. — Jack Kirby

I didn't save my money for a lawyer. I was a very young man, and saved my money for having a good time. — Jack Kirby

I'm not the sort of fellow who does the same thing all the time. I began using a lot of science fiction apparatus. I came out with the atom bomb two years before it was actually used because I read in the paper that a fellow named Nicola Tesla was working on the atom bomb. — Jack Kirby

If America gave anybody anything it is ambition. Bad things would come out of it because some guys are in a hurry, but that doesn't mean they're evil or anything, it just means they fall into bad grace somehow. — Jack Kirby

You had to grow up sometime. The fellows who grew early, they were in jeopardy. They became the cops and the crooks, and the crooks became the gangsters. The crooks became the Al Capones. — Jack Kirby

My style is personal, my style of writing is personal, and I believe in that. I believe what comes out of me is an individual thing, and that's why I, I believe in the individual. — Jack Kirby

I had to make a living. I was a married man. I had a wife. I had a home. I had children. I had to make a living. That's the common pursuit of every man. — Jack Kirby

Any kind of music can be written badly and it can be written wonderfully. I admire a top performer in any field. — Jack Kirby

I'm not interested in the ego trip of creating or not creating. I'm interested in selling a magazine. Rock-bottom, I sell magazines. I'm a thorough professional who does his job. — Jack Kirby

Kid ... Comics will break your heart. — Jack Kirby

A character to me can't be contrived. I don't like to contrive characters. They have to have an element of truth. — Jack Kirby

I always resent anybody interfering with anybody else trying to do his job. Everybody has his own job to do. If he's good, he'll do well, but if he's mediocre, he's not going to do as well as he should. — Jack Kirby

All human beings have the capability of doing what they want, what they're attracted to. — Jack Kirby

The average politician was crooked. That was my ambition, to be a crooked politician. I'd see them in these restaurants, and they'd all hold these conferences. I'd see politicians who were supposed to be on opposite sides of issues all together at one table. — Jack Kirby

There were very strict social conventions, and you adhered to it, and I think it gave you a lot of character. When a man said something, he meant it. He wasn't kidding around. There were no jokes involved. Nobody was in the mood to joke unless you hit a guy with a baseball bat. — Jack Kirby

I get a lot of comics, and I can look at a comic and tell immediately whether I'll enjoy it or not. There are elements in the stories that I have no rapport with. I see dirty language, I see sleazy backgrounds; I see it reflected in the movies, the movies are comics to me. And I don't see a sleazy world. I see hope. I see a positive world. — Jack Kirby

I began to learn about the universe myself and take it seriously. I know the names of the stars. I know how near or far the heavenly bodies are from our own planet. I know our own place in the universe. I can feel the vastness of it inside myself. I began to realize with each passing fact what a wonderful and awesome place the universe is, and that helped me in comics because I was looking for the awesome. — Jack Kirby

I was being brought up on peasant stories; my mother came from Europe and she'd been a peasant and that was the area where the Frankensteins and the Draculas came from and it was entertainment for the people. Nobody had TV, and that was the way peasants would entertain themselves, by telling these stories. — Jack Kirby

I'd had a belly-full of being subservient. I had to find something else to do, and I did. I went to the animation houses. I went to new fields. — Jack Kirby

Life at best is bittersweet. — Jack Kirby

I feel that life is a series of very interesting questions, and very poor answers. But I myself am willing to settle for the questions. If the questions are interesting, I feel I evoke them in what I do. I feel that should be good enough for everyone else. — Jack Kirby

The artist is the lowest form of life on the rung of the ladder. The publishers are usually businessmen who deal with businessmen. They deal with promotional people. They deal with financial people. They deal with accountants. They deal with people who work on higher levels. They deal with tax people, but have absolutely no interest in artists, in individual artists, especially very young artists. — Jack Kirby

I would've liked to have been a better businessman when I was younger. And of course, I couldn't, because it wasn't part of my atmosphere. I never lived with accountants, I never lived with lawyers. — Jack Kirby

There was one time they knocked me out and laid me in front of my mother's door. And in order for my mother not to be shocked they readjusted my clothes and they saw that nothing was rumpled and I looked very comfortable next to the apartment door, so when my mother would open the door it wouldn't be that much of a shock. — Jack Kirby

Remember how unimportant you are because that knowledge will gain you more respect than someone who thinks the world revolves around them. — Jack Kirby

I was happy because I made enough money to give to my parents. I made enough money to get married on. I made enough money to enjoy myself a little more than I would have if I didn't have enough money. — Jack Kirby

When Superman came out it galvanized the entire industry. It's just part of the American scene. — Jack Kirby

Homo Sapiens and their guns. — Jack Kirby

My parents were immigrants. And the place for all immigrants was the factories. They were the source of cheap labor. — Jack Kirby

The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I'd beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it. — Jack Kirby

I was handed a chocolate bar and an M-1 rifle and told to go kill Hitler. — Jack Kirby

An American is a guy, a rich guy with a family, a decent guy with a family with as many kids as he likes, doing what he wants, working with people that he likes, and enjoying himself to his very old age. — Jack Kirby

Ideas can never be traced to any one source. They are tossed back and forth between people until the decision makers step in and choose what they think is a success formula. — Jack Kirby

Our dreams make us large. — Jack Kirby

An artist has to be humble, an editor must be officious, and a publisher must be somewhere out in the galaxy enjoying godhood. It was a caste system, pure and simple. And it was accepted that way. Nobody thought of contracts, nobody thought of insisting on better deals. — Jack Kirby

I couldn't draw anything that was too outlandish or too horrible. I never did that. What I did draw was something intriguing. There was something about this monster that you could live with. If you saw him you wouldn't faint dead away. — Jack Kirby

Some of my friends became gangsters. You became a gangster depending upon how fast you wanted a suit. Gangsters weren't the stereotypes you see in the movies. I knew the real ones, and the real ones were out for big money. — Jack Kirby

I draw people as I see them. I'm not involved in making artistic masterpieces. My, my object is to mirror people and I've always done that. — Jack Kirby

Perfectionists are their own devils. — Jack Kirby

I took a great joy with inventing new kinds of mechanisms. I invented new kinds of machines. I've been a student of science fiction for a long, long time, and I'm very well-versed in science fact and science fiction. — Jack Kirby

I was a good student in the subjects that I wanted to be good in. The curriculum in my section was excellent. — Jack Kirby

I feel that every professional is the art school for the next guy. I feel that maybe a lot of the dynamism in my own work, having been felt by the rest of the artists, they'll react to it and put elements of that in their own work, feeling that it'll help it. — Jack Kirby

I feel that man can transcend himself to a point where he can accomplish greater things than he thinks. I see people depressed and I see people who devalue themselves and I feel that's a terrible, terrible waste. But I love the people who try. But try fairly, try honestly. — Jack Kirby

I've done things that I wouldn't ordinarily seem capable of doing. And I've proven myself in situations where there's life and death at stake. And so, I can live with myself knowing that it's not a matter of guts or anything like that. It's a matter of willingness to go the length, to transcend yourself. — Jack Kirby

The people who worked in comics were terrific guys. I had a good association with them, and I enjoyed comics for that very reason. — Jack Kirby

I could do whatever I liked to do during the day. I didn't have to work in an office. I could work at home. I could work at my leisure. I worked 'til four in the morning. I worked with the TV and radio on - it was a great setup. I was a night person and still am. — Jack Kirby

I'm OMAC! Evacuate this section! I'm going to destroy it! — Jack Kirby

I've never done anything bad. I can't do anything bad. It's got to be professional. It's got to look professional. It's got to read professional. In other words, it serves its purpose by entertaining a reader. — Jack Kirby

Every father was his own man. He did what he wanted. If your mother went shopping, your father never went with her. — Jack Kirby

I'm a guy who had to perform some way. I had to perform in some way. If not as an actor, I'd perform as an artist. It would have been something that would be outstanding in its own way. — Jack Kirby

I admired anybody who could make a buck with his drawing. — Jack Kirby

Mort Meskin was a consummate professional, dedicated to his work. A great talent. — Jack Kirby

I tried to, from my very early years, I've been an inveterate movie goer and still am and I, I love the medium. So what I, what I draw and what I'm still doing, is part of that particular orientation. — Jack Kirby

I felt the comics grew because they became the common man's literature, the common man's art, the common man's publishing. — Jack Kirby

I don't want to take somebody else's beating. That makes me unhappy. — Jack Kirby

I never duck out of a fight; I don't care what the hell the odds are, and I'm rough at times, but I try to be a decent guy all the time. That's the way I've always lived. — Jack Kirby

I write from a people's point of view. I love people because I understand them. I understand an enemy, I understand a friend, I understand grey areas, and I understand black areas. — Jack Kirby

There are people that I didn't like, but I saw them suffer and it changed me. I promised myself that I would never tell a lie, never hurt another human being, and I would try to make the world as positive as I could. — Jack Kirby

I won't do anything bad, and I resent very deeply bad people who haven't got the ability, who try to interfere with the kind of work I'm trying to do because nobody's going to benefit from it. — Jack Kirby

Everybody can draw, in my estimation. If you give a man 50 years, he'll come up with the Mona Lisa. — Jack Kirby

Superman is going to live forever. They'll be reading Superman in the next century when you and I are gone. I felt, in that respect, I was doing the same thing. I wanted to be known. I wasn't going to sell a comic that was going to die quickly. — Jack Kirby

Nobody ever asked me to do anything. Nobody knew what to do. When comics were brand new, nobody knew what kind of comics to make. So you were mostly on your own. — Jack Kirby

I was an artist, but not a self-proclaimed great artist, just a common man who was working in a form of art which is universal. — Jack Kirby