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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
We only got clothing once a year, like, right before school began. It’s like, that’s when you got your clothing. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
We are all just little dolls of ourselves. Who occasionally pull back the curtains to reveal the real us. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
Actually, I think that ‘Seinfeld’ tackles the same kinds of issues as ‘Six Feet Under,’ just in a different way. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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?’ – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
Sometimes I’ll be reading something online and just get so frustrated because of what people are saying. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
In New York, all the crews read ‘The New Yorker.’ In Los Angeles, they don’t know from ‘The New Yorker.’ – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
Graduation speeches force you to reflect. They are about consciousness. Nothing is better than consciousness. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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.’ – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
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. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
When I was a kid, and I was watching TV, I just loved it so much that I wanted to crawl into that TV. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
Traditionally, the only way I come up with cartoons is by sitting at my desk and thinking. – Bruce Eric Kaplan
