The Good Quote
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Home
Authors
Lynn Johnston
American
Cartoonist
About the author
If I was in love with someone, I would get their picture out of the school yearbook and do portraits. If I was curious about sex, I would draw pictures of it. There were no books for me to look at. Then I would go find my father's matches to burn the paper.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Love
#Books
#School
#Father
#Sex
#Portraits
It's taken me a long time to become the person I am, for all the ugliness to fall away. The rotten flesh is gone, and the seed is there. I can touch that now.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Time
#Now
#Ugliness
I've always felt that life is a novel, and part of it is written for you, and part of it is written by you. It's up to you to write the ending, ultimately.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Life
#Ending
You see, anything I imagined, I could draw.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
Yes, and when I had Aaron, he left me, and I didn't know how to raise a child. And I wasn't close to my parents, and because I was too proud to go to my parents for help, I mistreated that little baby. I didn't want a baby.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Want
#Help
#Baby
#Parents
When Kate was born, she was born into a world of joy and happiness and confidence. The difference between the children is night and day. She's happy, she's thriving, she's full of self-confidence. I tell her she's beautiful every day before I send her off to school.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Children
#Day
#World
#Self
#Night
#School
#Difference
#Happiness
#Confidence
#Joy
The most profound statements are often said in silence.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Silence
That's what my mother did. And my father was the first person she'd met who treated her kindly. She was terrified of men, and she married a very meek, kind, dear man. And she had the upper hand. She ruled the roost.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Man
#First
#Men
#Mother
#Father
Sure, I've had some bad times, but everybody does. But people don't get to talk about them like I do, unless they do to a therapist. People don't get to put them in the paper like I do.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Talk
#People
People never knew we were poor, but out of that poverty came the most incredible inventions - board games, recipes... we never stopped inventing.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#People
#Games
#Poor
#Poverty
#Inventions
Only a couple of times have I ever been to church and felt enlightened by it.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Church
No matter how old you are, there's always something good to look forward to.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Old
My mother was a very literate person who had educated herself. She had an exceptional vocabulary.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Mother
#Vocabulary
Aaron and I will be joined at the hip until the day we die. We have loved and hated each other since the day he was born. He's very much a part of my heart. He's going to broadcasting college now, and he'll do fine. But he came into a world that did not welcome him.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Now
#Will
#Day
#Heart
#World
#College
Mom and Dad would stay in bed on Sunday morning, but the kids would have to go to church.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Kids
#Church
#Bed
#Mom
#Dad
You think about child abuse and you think of a father viciously attacking a daughter or a son, but in my family it was my mother. My mother, I would say, was a... very brutal disciplinarian.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Daughter
#Family
#Mother
#Son
#Father
#Abuse
In a way, a certain amount of self-criticism is a good thing, because it keeps you humble. Realizing that no matter what success you've achieved, you can still make enemies makes you humble, too.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Success
#Enemies
#Self
I've had some tremendous adventures, good and bad. It's part of the novel, and a novel isn't interesting if it doesn't have some good and bad. And you don't know what good is if bad hasn't been a part of your life.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Life
I was just so lucky to have a wonderful life after a tough marriage.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Life
#Marriage
I often think you bring unhappiness on yourself, because if you don't like yourself very much, you allow yourself to be influenced by people who reinforce that.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#People
#Unhappiness
I loved the Little Lulu stories, where she would fantasize that her bedroom rug would turn into a pool of water, and she could dive down into the center of the world.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#World
#Water
I know it sounds crazy, but I have had far more connection with my parents after their deaths.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Parents
#Connection
Complaining is good for you as long as you're not complaining to the person you're complaining about.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Complaining
But I married a guy who treated me very badly, but I was happy. I was miserable, so I was happy.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
But even though all this was going on at home, if someone had tried to take me away and put me in a children's home, I couldn't have handled it. Even though my mother was very brutal, it was my home.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Children
#Home
#Mother
And my father was a comic. He could play any musical instrument. He loved to perform. He was a wonderfully comedic character. He had the ability to dance and sing and charm and analyze poetry.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Character
#Dance
#Play
#Ability
#Poetry
#Father
#Charm
After I got this job at the syndicate, I started sending them money so they could go on trips and do the things they could never afford to do. All the while, I never knew that my mother was socking money away.
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Money
#Mother
#Job
My brother was a great audience, and if he liked the picture, he would laugh and laugh and laugh, and he would want to keep the picture. Making people laugh with an image I had created... what power that was!
Lynn Johnston,
American
Cartoonist
#Want
#People
#Power
#Brother