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Bruce Eric Kaplan [1964-0] American

Rank: 102
Cartoonist

Bruce Eric Kaplan, known as BEK, is an American cartoonist whose single-panel cartoons frequently appear in The New Yorker. His cartoons are known for their signature simple style and often dark humor.

Graduation, Birthday

Quote	Tags	Rank
As an adult, it's hard for me to remember my mother before her sickness. But if I go back into childhood, I can access that.		101
It's not like during your normal day, anyone says, 'How do having meaning in your life? How do you make meaning in your life?'		102
When I was a kid, I would be watching TV shows like, you know, like 'Get Smart' and be like, 'That's what being an adult is.'		103
Of course I loved 'I Love Lucy' and saw every episode over and over again. I found it heartbreaking that Ricky got to be famous and have an exciting life at the Tropicana while Lucy was stuck in that terrible apartment with the Mertzes.		104
We only got clothing once a year, like, right before school began. It's like, that's when you got your clothing.		105
When I was a kid, and I was watching TV, I just loved it so much that I wanted to crawl into that TV.		106
What I like about graduation speeches is that they're an opportunity for someone to make sense of their life and to impart that wisdom to someone else. It's like a sanctioned self-help moment.	Graduation	107
I can't get enough of self-help books of all kinds.		108
I started trying to be a writer and failed for years. I tried novels, short stories, sitcoms, movies, plays, anything. And then, to support myself, I had millions of jobs on the fringes of show business.		109
Actually, I think that 'Seinfeld' tackles the same kinds of issues as 'Six Feet Under,' just in a different way.		110
Sometimes I'll be reading something online and just get so frustrated because of what people are saying.		111
I've had to whine for everything I've ever really wanted.		112
Traditionally, the only way I come up with cartoons is by sitting at my desk and thinking.		113
When I'm on the set, I'll come up with ideas if I'm sort of just between responsibilities, because there's a lot of sitting around on set. Invariably, though, the stuff I come up with on the set tends to be bad.		114
It's self-soothing for me to draw. So if I'm upset, drawing makes me less upset.		115
It was memorable the first time 'The New Yorker' bought a cartoon from me. I had been sending them batches for years every week, and they didn't respond to them.		116
I loved Charles Addams more than anything. Still love him.		117
James Thurber was an inspiration because his drawings were so primitive. I am self-taught - I didn't go to art school - so I thought when I started doing them, 'If James Thurber can be a cartoonist, I can,' because his stuff is very raw.		118
I'm continually working on myself. Nothing ever actually works.		119
One quintessential moment in time is when you're 22, when you graduate college. And then another quintessential time is as a middle-age man. That's the convergence.		120
I love graduation speeches. I have always loved them; I will always love them.	Graduation	121
Graduation speeches force you to reflect. They are about consciousness. Nothing is better than consciousness.	Graduation	122
In Los Angeles, it's always nice out. In New York, it can be nice out or horrifying. You really have no idea what you're going to get on any given day.		123
In L.A., you can put out a craft-service table anywhere, and it's no big deal. But in New York, people who walk by it on the street get really angry about it.		124
In New York, all the crews read 'The New Yorker.' In Los Angeles, they don't know from 'The New Yorker.'		125
Shooting in Los Angeles is always pleasant and comfortable. Shooting in New York is like being on 'Survivor.'		126
In many ways, cartooning is my therapy. I've always said they're like my diaries. It's thoughts and feelings and things I've seen on any particular day.		201
We are all just little dolls of ourselves. Who occasionally pull back the curtains to reveal the real us.		202
I used cartoons as diaries. I still do. They're my way of figuring out the world, what's happening to me or what I'm thinking about.		203
I started doing a Twitter feed when my father was dying. I was very distracted, preoccupied. It was upsetting.		204
I go through my day remembering things like telephone cords.		205
My father would often start to say something, then say 'Forget it.'		206
I am assuming my father learned at an early age that there is nothing more dangerous than showing your true self. I think a lot of us learn that, and it actually may be true.		207
All I can really tell you about my father is that he did odd things like put tin foil on a bottle of beer after having a few sips, then put it in the refrigerator to perhaps have on another night.		208
My mother always bought our birthday gifts.	Birthday	209
I actually thought, like, I was sure 'Get Smart' and, like, 'James Bond' movies, I was sure that that's what real life was like.		210
No, I never - no one ever - I never learned anything when I was a kid. Honestly, my parents had nothing to tell me - like, no wisdom, nothing.		211
I always doodled as a kid while I was talking on the phone or watching TV.		212
I've had mostly book parties, where I get very focused on inviting everyone and not forgetting anyone, although of course one always does, and being worried no one will show up, but mostly the book comes from going to parties and feeling very, for lack of a better word, anxious.		213
One identity is as a television writer, which is very classically Southern California, but another of my personae is as a New Yorker cartoonist.		214
In television writing, you want to hear what the characters say as opposed to giving them something to say. It's the same with the cartoons.		215
My cartoon life is in my office, and it's very separate and getting very in my own head. My television life is I'm begging one of the actors to say the line in the way I'd like them to.		216
I was trying to be a writer, and I was kind of getting sidetracked, so I started doing cartoons as a form of expression.		217
I read the 'New Yorker' when I was a kid. I used to love the cartoons and pick the cartoons out of the library, so I felt I knew the world of their cartoons.		218
I thought about trying to do a strip. I even tried to do it, but I felt I didn't have the voice. Even though I liked that form, I didn't think I thought in the form of the three panels.		219
I had always wanted to do a collection of cartoons, but you have to wait until someone is actually interested.		220
Yes, the people I draw don't have a wide variety of looks. Every now and then I'll spruce it up, like a woman will be wearing a two-piece suit as opposed to a one-piece, or a man will not be wearing a tie; he'll just have a collar.		221
My mother couldn't take having three boys. She was extremely jumpy, to say the least. Any noise startled her. The sound of a pot dropping on the ground could make her hit the ceiling.		222
I never really got into 'The Munsters' that much, but there was one aspect that was compelling. That was Marilyn. She was the only normal one among this group of creatures.		223
There was never any butter in our home. Just margarine. My parents acted like butter was lethal. I don't think I ever saw either one have a piece of butter. I would go over to friends' houses and down sticks of butter.		224
I've sat through boring speeches; didn't get up and leave.		225

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