I went to Havana, and I was like, "Wow, there's culture everywhere!" That was one thing that I did notice when I went to Cuba was that artists are paid to be artists, and poets are paid to be poets, and musicians are paid to be musicians by the government. The government - and I'm not saying that the Cuban government's perfect - but the government does place a value on culture.

Aaron McGruder

Categorized in : Perfect Artist Musician

Late to bed and late to wake will keep you long on money and short on mistakes.

Aaron McGruder

bed mistake long

When I pass, speak freely of my shortcomings and my flaws. Learn from them, for I'll have no ego to injure.

Aaron McGruder

flaws ego speak

Good satire goes beyond the specific point it’s trying to make and teaches you how to think critically. Even after your favorite cartoonist retires or [Stephen] Colbert wraps it up, you’re not left believing everything they’re telling you.

Aaron McGruder

trying believe thinking

That's not saying there's not a bunch of good Democrats. I'm sure there's a lot of people who still haven't figured that out yet or simply don't want to have that pessimistic of an outlook, but I think the Democratic Party is completely worthless.

Aaron McGruder

party people thinking

I think you should know that real-life white people are not all as funny as the ones on 'Seinfeld'.

Aaron McGruder

real white thinking

When the news wants to tell you something is important, they put dramatic theme music behind it. They scare you into watching the story.

Aaron McGruder

news scare important

We have to confront the very scary fact that the president is a moron. He's really dumb.

Aaron McGruder

scary dumb president

It's not the norm when creators have any protections with regards to creative control. And so it took some time, I think, for the strip to gain enough popularity where I had enough leverage to come in and say, "It has to be done in a certain way or it's not going to be done at all," and then have people willing to put up with that who were ultimately paying for it. You know, for them to be willing to kind of concede those kind of things. It just takes time, you know?

Aaron McGruder

creative people thinking

But I know that in Toronto and Vancouver there are all the comforts of America, and yet there's a difference in the people, and I had health care.

Aaron McGruder

differences america people

I want the news delivered unbiased. I thought that was the whole point with journalism.

Aaron McGruder

news unbiased want

And I'm not so in love with making people mad that I want to live my life around it.

Aaron McGruder

mad want people

The biggest thing that I don't like about L.A. is the sort of 2 a.m. shutdown of everything. It really kind of stagnates the nightlife. It's very hard to casually have fun in Los Angeles. If you want to go out and have fun it's like a full-time job, you have to really prepare, and call ahead, and get on a list, and know somebody... It's really rough to relax here.

Aaron McGruder

relax kind fun

Fluid and energetic and wild very, very smart and very, very funny.

Aaron McGruder

energetic fluid smart

I wonder what it means when your grandson is more crotchety than you are.

Aaron McGruder

grandson wonder mean

I don't want the news to be patriotic. I don't want to see flags on the lapels of the anchors. I don't want any of that.

Aaron McGruder

flags anchors patriotic

I'm actually kind of angriest about the fact that everybody keeps saying how angry I am.

Aaron McGruder

kind

You can't accuse the creator of The Boondocks, ... Jesus was black, Ronald Reagan was the devil and the government is lying about 9/11.

Aaron McGruder

government lying jesus

You know, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have supported individuals and regimes that have slaughtered millions across the globe. And they need to be held accountable for that.

Aaron McGruder

republican administration needs

You know, every time a summer movie comes out, people think they're gonna get rich off of the merchandise.

Aaron McGruder

summer people thinking

I think that's always been part of the thinking behind the script, that - and I really tried really hard to impress that upon the staff of the show, the animation staff - to try to get them to understand that we would only be able to get away with what we were writing if the visuals were appealing enough that it was like a balance, and even people who didn't like what they were hearing would still not want to turn away because what they were seeing was so nice. So that was kind of my hunch, and I think it worked.

Aaron McGruder

nice writing thinking