Top 9 Quotes & Sayings by Edward Sorel

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American illustrator Edward Sorel.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Edward Sorel

Edward Sorel is an American illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist, graphic designer and author. His work is known for its storytelling, its left-liberal social commentary, its criticism of reactionary right-wing politics and organized religion. Formerly a regular contributor to The Nation, New York Magazine and The Atlantic, his work is today seen more frequently in Vanity Fair. He has been hailed by The New York Times as "one of America's foremost political satirists". As a lifelong New Yorker, a large portion of his work interprets the life, culture and political events of New York City. There is also a large body of work which is nostalgic for the stars of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood when Sorel was a youth. Sorel is noted for his wavy pen-and-ink style, which he describes as "spontaneous direct drawing".

I was always nervous, always scared. That's stayed with me my whole life. I think it's all our genes. We're all stuck with ourselves. I wish I were calm. Never get scared, always calm, but that's not me. I panic easily.
When a drawing doesn't come out right it's because I haven't figured out where the joke is. Not that every drawing has a joke, but every drawing has a point. At least it should have. And you figure out where the point is.
The big problem for comic art is you don't want to overwork it. If a drawing is overworked it isn't funny. It's the spontaneity that keeps a work fresh and funny. If they can see how hard you work, if they can see the beads of sweat, it's no good. I always try to make it look easy.
We all wish we were better. I wish I were a better artist, wish I were a kinder person, wish I were all kinds of things. But we're stuck with ourselves. I have good friends. And that in itself convinces me that I deserve to live.
I love being convincing. I love when a gesture is convincing and I love doing research for a picture. If you're telling a story you need a background. Just like a novelist needs background information to make a story interesting, I think an artist needs it for a picture too.
My one failing as an artist is that I depend on reference material to perhaps a greater extent than I should. Delacroix said that if you can draw a man falling out of a window and have the drawing finished before he hits the ground then you're a real artist. I wasn't that kind of artist.
I always get scared doing a job. To this day, I start every job thinking, I really can't do this. And what I do when I'm insecure is I tighten up. If you work through the night you can do anything.
Looking back I realize I had the perfect family background to become the political cartoonist that I became. My father was stupid, insensitive, and cruel, thereby making me distrustful of all authority. On the other hand, I had a warm, supportive and encouraging mother, which made me want to fix the world.
Like every young man growing up in the puritanical Eisenhower 1950s, I had a hell of a time getting laid. I suppose that's why I was always intrigued by, and terribly envious of men who had no trouble at all in bedding a vast variety of desirable women.
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