Harvey Pekar Quotes

I've always been inspired by Genet, Henry Miller and Hubert Selby, Jr., who taught me that you've got to tell a bigger truth in whatever you're doing, but the truth is not popular.

You can try to reach an audience, but you just write what comes out of you and you just hope that it is accepted. You do not write specifically to a generation.

Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.

I am quite certain in my heart of hearts that modern music and modern art is not a conspiracy, but is a form of truth and integrity for those who practise it honestly, decently and with all their being.

I'm simply trying to tell the truth about human behaviour as I see it.

Write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

I write about what I know.

The only really good piece of advice I have for my students is, 'Write something you'd never show your mother or father.' And you know what they say? 'I could never do that!'

I want to write without shame or pride or over-compensation in one direction or another. To write freely.

Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.

I have never written out of a desire to be controversial.

I don't think there's any topic a writer should feel afraid of tackling just because it has already been discussed. If you feel you have a fresh perspective and an understanding of a certain emotional truth, it's always worth writing.

I don't ever want anything to come in the way of me truthfully telling a story.

You're not free unless you can show the good and the bad, all sides of them. So to me, when I play a character, it's important that I can show every aspect of them.

The reason I became an actress is because I wanted my acting to reflect life as it is. I want to put truth on the screen. I want real women to see real women on the screen.

I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad.

I would definitely welcome lighter material, but I like to be where the truth lies.

You find yourself writing the truth, because it's like, 'Well, I ain't writing for anyone but myself anyway.'

If I can't be honest with music, forget it.

In general I think that in art you only have the responsibility to tell the truth.

I've learned by experience that, if I get too clever with lyrics, or if I'm not totally embodying my own wants and needs in the songs, I can't remember them.

You do your best to tell your own story, in the most specific way, and then you hope that that travels well, when it's done with heart and honesty.

I feel like I try to write from an honest of a place as I can - without scaring people off too much, I guess.

It doesn't matter even if I am slow or fast as long as my films are honest and carries my integrity.

It's good to be employable, but I hope to show the truth. The paintings seem true because nobody wants me to do them.