Mort Walker Quotations

When I introduced a black soldier, Lt. Flap, in 1971, the Stars and Stripes banned the strip. They were having racial problems and thought it would increase the tensions.

Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs of your heart.

Everything I know, I write about. My only research is what I did.

I took Beetle home thinking that after the Korean War was over, I would have to take him out of the Army. I thought, well, what am I going to do with him?

The people who were against the Vietnam War thought I was attacking the Army. The guys in the Army thought I was representing their experiences. I was on both sides, and I survived.

I was kicked out of The Stars And Stripes twice, and finally got back in.

When the war was over and the guys were back to shaving every day, the editor thought the Beetle Bailey strips were hurting their disciplinary efforts to get the guys back to routine.

You learn just by trying and experimenting. By the time I was 14, I had my own comic strip in the Kansas City paper.

At one time Tribune Syndicate emptied out their storeroom. They put tables full of original cartoons down in the lobby and said take one if you want one. The comics were simply a burden to them.

I say, if you believe what you read in the comic strips, then you believe that mice run around with little gold buttons on their red pants and drive cars.

Some people will do schlock or anything, just to get their name on it.

I got my experience drawing for school newspapers. I was drawing editorial cartoons and comic strips as far back as I can remember.

You think back through history, and 40 was an old age at one time. You didn't live past 40. Sixty forget it. Here I am at 80, and I feel alert and energetic. Why would I retire?

Seven days without laughter makes one weak.

Life is like a game of chess...there are many moves possible, but each move determines your next move...where you wind up is the sum total of all your past moves...but first you have to make some kind of move.

It is not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.

When I draw, I rule the world.

You taught me to be nice, so nice that now I am so full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no outrage, no passion.