Michael Ramirez Quotes

I think Chris Matthews is a very bright guy. I'd listen to him even if he didn't shout at people.

My challenge as a satirical artist is how to present ideas to people to enable them to question and reexamine their beliefs. My hope is, that my work provokes people to look at things in a new way.

Editorial cartoons are about concept. The illustration is merely a vehicle to convey a point of view. We're here to protect and inform the public, to attack and repel those who do not agree with our long-term shared interest.

Doug Motel makes 'conscious comedy'. He makes me laugh, and he makes me think.

Cinema is not only about making people dream. It's about changing things and making people think.

I believe comedy is a really good lens to filter serious issues through. If people are laughing, they don't necessarily realize until they stop laughing that they just took something in that's going to start a conversation.

My ultimate goal is to make people laugh and make them think, which isn't always an easy task.

Art is supposed to spark conversation and make people think.

I am not one to generalize, but cartoonists, as a group, exhibit a level of social sophistication generally associated with pie fights. In high school, when the future lawyers were campaigning for class president, the future cartoonists were painstakingly altering illustrations in their history books so that Robert E. Lee appeared to be performing an illegal act with his horse.

I was hired by the 'Tom Joyner Morning Show' to do commentary that makes people think. I want my audience to feel like they are learning and not being pandered to.

The reason I wrote political satire was because I thought it - politics - was important... that public policy was important. Then I transitioned into books, then into radio.

I think comedy does have that powerful thing that doesn't seem too preachy because you're also making people laugh, so it's really kind of a good tool for messaging.

If you go back to 'Pretty Fly,' it was a very popish song, but there was a satirical side to it, and I think that's cool. I like the idea that it's making people think just a little bit.

I don't really care if people get upset. I think I'm doing my job if people get upset; I want them to think! We all want them to think, hopefully.

I do not make movies to send any message, but my treatment makes my viewers think on the subject.

Film is the only language I speak, and I have been lucky to be involved in some great stories. You don't want to preach to people, but you want them to think about why things are the way they are, the history that is there as well as the possibilities.

Political satire is a serious thing. In democratic newspapers throughout the world there are daily cartoons that often are not even funny, as is the case especially in many English-language newspapers. Instead, they contain a political message, and the artist takes full responsibility.

Real comedy doesn't just make people laugh and think, but makes them laugh and change.

A good comedy with a purpose behind it is exhilarating.

Well, it's a humor strip, so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader... But if, in addition, I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me, so much the better.

I want to make films that are political and social. Films with a message or an idea. Films that dare to ask.

You know, I'm a comedian the same as Bill Maher and Jon Stewart. We all came up the same way. The three of us have interest in politics; I call us fundits, we're fundits! We're not pundits!

I did 32 years of political cartoons, one every day for six days a week, I wrote and drew every word, every line. That body of work is the one I'm proudest of.

Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert. Those are the guys I look at who are telling me pretty much the truth. And they throw humor into it which makes it much more interesting to listen to.

It's one of the functions of the theater to shock and titillate and appall, apart from entertain and delight.