Gilbert Hernandez Quotes

Sometimes I think, 'Why couldn't I have been normal?'

When I was a boy, I was called a nerd all the time - because I didn't like sports, I loved to read, I liked math and science, I thought school was really cool - and it hurt a lot. Because it's never OK when a person makes fun of you for something you didn't choose. You know, we don't choose to be nerds.

I'm always interested in how people, myself included, have ideas of themselves, of how they thought they would be, or of how they want to be seen. And the older you get, the world keeps telling you different things about yourself. And how people either adjust to those things and let go of adolescent notions. Or they dig in deeper.

It didn't matter that I wore clothes from Sears; I was still different. I looked different. My name was different. I wanted to pull away from the things that marked my parents as being different.

Working with the doctors is a fascinating two-way process. I am interested in what they suggest about why I'm the way I am. But if they could make me 'normal', I wouldn't want that. I've been like this for so long, it's what makes me .

I'm a nut, but not just a nut.

I've always been interested in how the individual comes to know and accept him or herself, which I think has been hard for me.

In addition to exploring imaginative worlds, I believe that young people should have access to reading material that validates their life, that gives them a sense of identity - to be able to read texts that chimes with their own world, corrals thoughts, and connects with the emotional conflicts of growing up.

I was bullied from the age of 11 onwards. I was always much bigger than the other kids. I spoke nicely, didn't swear, and I refused to try to fit in and be like everyone else. People assumed I thought I was above everyone else.

I am Thomas Muller, and I want to be like me.

People often ask me when I realised that I was different. Some people seem surprised that it's a question that I cannot answer. I was never told that I was different. I was always just Sinead; I was just like my dad.

I don't feel like there has ever really been anyone like me, and I'm starting to realize that. Not in a cocky way, but in a very humbling way.

I know what my identity is.

I think realising that you're individual and unique is really amazing.

I've spent my entire life trying to figure out why I was different than everybody else. Why is my voice so deep? Why am I so muscular?

I am so far more secure and more grounded and more know who I am than when I was in my 20s.

In your 30s, you are very aware of who you are and what you're confident in.

I've kept a journal since I was 15. And I feel like it's been crucial to who I've become and trying to maintain stuff, a sense of who I am just for myself and not for other people.

What's normal? I think I'm normal... Maybe I'm abnormal because I get such a thrill from real life, just real life, everyday things.

I think you can write a psychological profile of me that says I found a way to immerse my insecurities in a cause large enough to justify whatever I wanted it to.

I spent my life figuring out ways to make the room OK with me.

I'd be so fascinated to talk to a psychologist or sociologist about the deep psychological impact of seeing oneself represented. I don't think we've really touched the surface of what it does to the psyche of a people if the only image of you out there is negative. Or if it's never out there.

I was bullied about everything, from the way I looked to the fact that my father had been a dancer.

Everybody has their own story - it's who you are. If I wasn't five-foot, I wouldn't be who I am!

When I look at myself, I see a person who strangely lacks what I consider the ingredients of a personality.