Harvey Pekar Quotes

Although I always said that I wanted to be a writer from childhood, I hadn't actually done much about it until I came to London.

My ambition was to stop waiting tables. That was how I measured success: finally, I was able to stop waiting tables, and I was able to pay the rent, and that was by being a stand-up comic. Not a very good stand-up comic, but good enough to make a living.

I liked teaching, but the bureaucracy of academia and the petty intrigue... It wasn't a good fit. Once I admitted that myself, that I didn't like academia, I was ready to try TV.

I have written more than 100 novels and novellas since 1983 - I was first published in 1985. There was an overlap of three years with my teaching career, but finally I felt good enough about my writing career to quit teaching and write full time.

I think people thought I was crazy for leaving Mexico when I had any project I wanted falling at my feet. But I risked everything to come to Los Angeles, where no one knew who I was, and start all over again. It was a very hard step to take. However, it was the moment I thought it was right to take a risk in my career.

Ever since I've left, I've been doing nothing but this film and traveling, promoting and doing festivals. So the good thing is that I'm not sitting around pining over whether I made the right choice in leaving. I'm moving and grooving.

You know that gap between where you are and where you'd like to be? Within that gap, there is an ache and an aspirational leap, which is very good for writing.

I always wanted to be a singer. I was going to finish school and go to Berkley, and then Vine came out, and I felt like I could finally show people my talent. I can even sing in the Vines. It's honestly changed my life. I don't know where I would be right now without it.

I don't know, you know, when I look at it now, I don't know what in the world made me think I could become a director. I really don't.

I tell fans who ask me why I'm not doing comedy anymore that I'm a different person. I've grown and I've matured. I've made a transition to where I really want to be.

I had it in my head when I was in college that I wanted to be a writer, but it took me a long time to commit to being a writer. Up until then, I had worked one dead-end job after another while writing on the side.

I didn't want to look back in 10 or 20 years and say, 'Yes, I always wanted to write that piano sonata or that novel, but I never had time.'

Everybody wants attention, more or less. I just want a lot.

I don't think when I decided I didn't want to be an accountant any more that I was necessarily saying I wanted to be an NBA head coach. I just really wanted to figure out if I could do it.

You don't need to be born with a silver spoon to reach for the brass ring

We may not be able to accomplish everything we can dream, but we will not accomplish anything without our dreams

From my point of view, it is better to take the chance, having had nine jobs in 10 years, to recharge my batteries

I've nothing against anyone following their dreams - but not if they're crap.

I don't see many artists who are not trying to bring their work to the public - -to the contrary I see artists nearly desperate to get attention for their art and, failing that, often for themselves.

With every word, I drop knowledge. I'm a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal trying to reach my goal.

If the idea is you're working at a job solely to pay the bills because you have ambitions to do something else, if you're not actively trying to do that other thing, you've gotta make sure you're doing that. Sometimes you've gotta take away your own safety net. But if you feel miserable in a day job, in any job, get out of that. Look for something else. Stay in that job until you have the other thing set up, and then go to that other thing. But sometimes you've just got to jump out with a parachute and trust that you're going to land someplace safe.

Success in the movies has pushed me to places I didn't know I was allowed to go.

Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. There's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.

Keep striving for your goals, and remember that it's good to be ambitious.

I never aspired to be 2nd. I was taught... you can do whatever you want in this world, so why not be the best in the world?