AARON MCGRUDER

We have, essentially, a worthless democracy.

I cannot be made into the commentator for the unspoken black masses.

You know, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have supported individuals and regimes that have slaughtered millions across the globe. And they need to be held accountable for that.

Once you give up rights, they're not going to give them back.

The American people have no control over what the military does. We have no say in American foreign policy.

One, I push my deadlines closer than anybody else, or let's say it this way: I'm really late.

Anyone with a gun can go out and commit an act of terrorism, even without a political affiliation.

I don't want the news to be patriotic. I don't want to see flags on the lapels of the anchors. I don't want any of that.

And I'm not so in love with making people mad that I want to live my life around it.

We have to confront the very scary fact that the president is a moron. He's really dumb.

When the news wants to tell you something is important, they put dramatic theme music behind it. They scare you into watching the story.

There's some new evidence that has just come out about the CIA planning terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in the '60s and how they were going to set up Castro for it in order to get America behind a war in Cuba.

I'm not a Democrat.

I want the news delivered unbiased. I thought that was the whole point with journalism.

You know, every time a summer movie comes out, people think they're gonna get rich off of the merchandise.

Don’t speak to the … converted. Don’t talk to a bunch of [fools] who agree with you. That’s not doing anything. Get your message out to people who would not ordinarily hear anything conscious. It’s not easy, but we have to be in the business of mainstreaming radicalism.

The business of entertainment is business first. I do a comic strip; the job, the business, is to be funny. If I’m not funny, the politics don’t matter, because no one will read it.

Poverty was not caused by the churches; so how can the churches solve the poverty problem?

The reason why my strip is important is not what I say, it’s that I say it in The Washington Post. It’s the channels of distribution that make it important. There’s a million people writing [stuff] in their basement. Great, but the relevance [of my work] is that everyone is reading it.

I wonder what it means when your grandson is more crotchety than you are.

I do the interviews and then I read about myself. I understand it and I get what it is. But there's so much stuff that I say, either jokingly or lightheartedly, that gets printed like I'm dead serious.

I'm actually kind of angriest about the fact that everybody keeps saying how angry I am.

I think, ultimately, the problem with something like this is that you actually have so many more opportunities to say something than you actually have things worth saying. And then, as an artist who doesn't want to do bad work, gosh, how do you fill up all that space when you really don't have anything actually worthwhile to say? And that's what makes the job tough, because the fans get mad - "That's not funny," or "You've been sucking for several months now." And you go, "It's not my fault! I'm trying."

Fidel Castro just talked a long time, and he talked and he talked and he talked and he talked... and he talked during the meeting. I think it was about four hours. But I guess that's part of the Castro spirit.

Meeting Fidel Castro was really cool. It's cool because it's Fidel, and it's a world leader, and there's so much history behind the man and who he is in this hemisphere. And then at the end of the day, he's, I think, just like a big mayor. There's only, like, 11 million people in Cuba. He's a big mayor.