I hardly ever use pencils. I'm left-handed and it's really messy if you're left-handed because of the graphite smudging. I use them more now than I used to because there's, like, 15,000 pencils all over my house. David Rees More Quotes by David Rees More Quotes From David Rees I don't want to be one of these people who's like, "Man, I don't know where my ideas come from and I don't know why this works." David Rees men people ideas I feel like really thinking about art and really appreciating it and learning the language of it just makes you more of a connoisseur. I believe that. David Rees believe art thinking I have a really analytical approach to art. And the whole idea that you can't analyze what makes a joke funny...I do not agree with that at all. David Rees funny-jokes ideas art I didn't dare to dream of making money. But now of course, I've made many thousands of dollars sharpening pencils. David Rees making-money dollars dream The thing I hear about a lot is when people over-sharpen their pencil with a single-blade pocket-sharpener and then when they put the pencil to the page, their tip breaks and pencil points always break irregularly. It always gets all jagged and you have to refresh the point. That's a common complaint. David Rees pockets pages people I talked to people in the pencil industry and I talked to people as I was sharpening their pencils about the frustrations they have with pencils, so I really did do my research and I do know more about pencils than most people. David Rees frustration research people I just wanted a really simple, dramatic way so that fans, people who were reading my comic, would be like, "This is something different." Just to flag it, almost. David Rees reading simple people Obviously, I never had to sketch anything out. To me, that was the appeal of working with clip art, working digitally. You make it and it's done. David Rees clip done art I would make a comic for Rolling Stone every two weeks, because they're biweekly. And then I would make weekly comics for my weekly papers. It was on two parallel tracks. And then they all got collected in a book. David Rees track two book Any working cartoonist will tell you this, anybody who's working in a creative field: at some point, it's a job. You have deadlines. I think, for over a year, I refused to make them for publications, because I only wanted to make them when I wanted to make them. But at some point, I was like, "This is crazy, you have an opportunity to be a professional cartoonist. David Rees crazy opportunity jobs I've never been good at self-promotion. And my URL is really obscure. And for years and years, there was nothing about me on my website. David Rees obscure self years I've always liked Richard Pryor. I've always responded to rhythmic profanity. David Rees profanity I don't like when performers rag on their ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend in absentia. If they're not there, it just feels rude... I'm never going to say anything personal about myself on stage. That's my new goal. David Rees ex-boyfriend girlfriend goal Talking about my personal life onstage, I've realized I'm not one of those comics who can do that. I can allude to it but I don't want to be a confessional performer. David Rees performers want talking I had good relationships with stores. And I was like, "All right, I'll self-publish it. But I'm only going to do 1,000." David Rees stores good-relationship self The way you make money is to do something you don't like to do. And that's how you know you're a virtuous person. David Rees virtuous making-money way I felt really conflicted about making money off stuff that's creatively satisfying. David Rees making-money felt stuff I started sharpening pencils at the census and how that was a difficult time in my life because my marriage was ending and I had quit cartooning and I didn't know what to do with myself. David Rees census difficult-times quitting Everyone has pencils in their house, no matter how hip and contemporary they are. David Rees hips matter house I assumed that the pencil market was collapsing, but then it turns out that from 2010 to 2011 in the United States, pencil consumption went up by over six percent. I mean, those are all foreign-made pencils. Those are probably Chinese pencils, mostly, and Mexican pencils. I mean, it is an archaic communication technology, but it is still ubiquitous. David Rees communication technology mean
