People From Chicago

"It's not hard to formulate an opinion on things. It's hard to make the viewer or reader [feel] validated. You've got to give them the jokes. Funny is a rare gift.... Early on, I erred on the side of message-driven. Those are the mistakes you learn from. The second season of the show, we tried to make that adjustment."

"I went in knowing the show couldn't be the strip, aside from the topicality. Those jokes don't "land" at all on television. We didn't re-create the strip on TV -- we wanted to keep the characters the same but make it stand on its own. That's hard -- we certainly didn't get it right away. We struggled with Huey for a long time. Granddad just worked right from the bat. A lot of those Season One episodes were really rough. ... That first season was rough. it almost killed me and everyone around me."

"Well the only way for you to know (my thoughts on political questions) would be through The Boondocks. I decided a long time ago to stop engaging in the conversation. If I had anything worthwhile to say, I should say it in the work."

"Everyone sits at home with their political opinions. The important thing is making it as funny as possible and knowing when to pull back on the message for the sake of the message...But it can never just [be about the jokes] for me. I'm not like a funny person. I'm not like a comedian. I have things I want to say. ... Bill Maher does find a nice balance between the jokes and tackling the serious issues. So few outlets [offer] those issues in a serious fashion."

"I think I'm a better writer now than when I started. I certainly know more about producing and working with actors. You take every single bit of it into the next project."

"This generation of young people ...music and pop culture has been pretty anti-intellectual. That's a hard thing to overcome."

"My issues (with cartooning) were totally about: one, I just burnt out on the strip and the deadlines were brutal. Two, I didn't feel like there was much of a future in print. I thought I needed to quit because I saw the newspapers slowly going away. I didn't want to be caught off guard. I felt more comfortable being a screenwriter, and as I learned how to become a producer, it seemed like a more natural fit for me than cartooning. I still do animation, and I think animation will always be a part of what I do, but I'm trying to do more live-action stuff and I think that's really going to be my focus."

"You go to Comic-Con and see a cross section of everybody. It used to be niche, and now it's so enormous that it's hard to categorize. But ultimately, the epicenter of who's creating this stuff still ends up being the comic book companies, the Hollywood movies or whatever. All of that is very much white male-centered."

"As I grew up I developed an interest in Garry Trudeau, and that's what took me into the direction of being a syndicated cartoonist."

"It's a world that accepts people more for who they are, and whoever you are, at this point, you can find your thing."

"Good satire goes beyond the specific point it's trying to make and teaches you how to think critically."

"I had gotten really good at just shutting it all out because you couldn’t possibly get any work done and track all of this trouble you were getting into and who was saying what."

"the Tuskegee Airmen who were heroes to me most of my life."

"my first memory in life was three years old: my dad took me to see Star Wars and it's not just the first movie I remember, it's my first memory. If you ever watch Boondocks, a lot of times it does become more of an action comedy than just a pure comedy. I've always had a passion for all that"

"We must not allow violence among brothers, and we must seek justice through the institutions that apply the law. The solution will never come with violence."

"Look at the 12 apostles. Jesus chose a man who was the tax collector for the Roman empire and also one who was an enemy of Caesar. But Jesus is bigger than politics, and the same happens here."

"“Do you believe that it’s dangerous?” Doug studied him closely. “Yes, although I’m in a minority here.” “Does that make you question your conclusion?” Glenn grimaced. “No, although it’s been strongly suggested that reconsidering would simplify my life.” “Group think?” Doug said. “Consensus is a poor substitute for thought. Tell the herd to eat shit—a hundred billion flies can’t be wrong.”"

"Truth seldom lends itself to crisp synopsis."

"Sincerity does not equal truth, of course."

"Once is random. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a pattern."

"“The jerk kids are in one of those backwaters that don’t consider virus writing a crime. Nothing will happen to them.” No, that wasn’t exactly true. If the word ever got out, chances were they would get job offers. Glenn half-believed the antivirus companies were in cahoots with the virus writers. The protection racket updated for the digital age."

"Facts form patterns. Patterns suggest hypotheses, Hypotheses are subject to inspection—and sometimes to proof."

"Patience neighbored respect for authority in Doug’s personal list of overrated virtues."

"Depression was merely anger without enthusiasm."

"As a retired clergyman, I'm still a priest. I have much more freedom than I had, but I haven't had much more free time."

"To have a sovereign nation, be able to do that. Part and parcel of that is having a common language. Part and parcel of being a unified nation is that you share the same language. That's all that means. That doesn’t mean you can’t speak your native tongue in your own house, but in terms of the government, in terms of public speech, in terms of everything that we do as a nation, English is our language."

"When I took on this position a few years back, what I felt was the most important statement and most the important guidance I could give my members is that I have to and I will respect the regional differences that we have within the state. Having run for a state-wide office many years ago it gave me a greater appreciation of the regional differences, not only is it just regional, but it is also philosophical. I have members that are very conservative but that reflects their district."

"Most educators and students are familiar with Columbia's American School of the Air, which was established in 1930 and today has a weekly audience of millions throughout the school year. These broadcasts, prepared under the supervision of distinguished educators, typify in many ways Columbia's whole roster of educational and cultural programs. In themselves, however, they are a well-planned and cumultative course of education by radio, presented five days a week each autumn, winter, and spring."

"... My father sold newspapers, then worked in a tobacco factory, and then in a cigar factory, where as an apprentice he came upon his destiny. It was not long before my father got the idea of opening a cigar store with one cigar maker working in the front window, which was not uncommon in those days. The cigar maker, sitting at a table in the window, rolling cigars by hand, was not only functional but was an attraction and an advertisement. Passers-by would stop to watch and perhaps come in to buy. Between his factory job and his own store, my father learned all about tobacco and discovered that he had the gift of recognizing the various qualities of tobacco and of blending them in attractive combinations of flavor. It was his particular genius and became his lifelong vocation. ... His brand of cigars began selling so well that he decided to go out and sell them to other cigar stores. Eventually he gave up the factory job, put more cigar makers to work in the back room of the store, and found himself in the cigar business. It was a short step from there to opening a cigar factory of his own. He made a good product, built a business, and became successful at an early age. In 1896, the year he was naturalized at the age of twenty-one, he had probably become a millionaire."

"I had an early passion for reading, especially for Horatio Alger stories. I went to the public library almost every day, and when I found a Horatio Alger book I had not read before, it was like finding a gold mine."

"Ed Sullivan proved his talent as a showman who could attract the best and most timely performers from all four corners of the world of entertainment."

"We the People (6/1/48) began on CBS Television as the first regularly scheduled network program series simulcast."

"Television was dominated by one network — CBS in its early days. And Paley was a god. But he didn't like to hear what he didn't like to hear. And people soon learned that. So they told Paley only what he liked to hear. Therefore, he was soon living in a little cocoon of unreality and everything else was corrupt — although it was a great business. So the idiocy that crept into the system was carried along by this huge tide. It was a Mad Hatter's tea party the last ten years under Bill Paley."

"Paley, Mister Paley. "He is to American broadcasting as Carnegie was to steel, Ford to automobiles, Luce to publishing and Ruth to baseball," the New York Times had once written. The New York Daily News had called him an electronic Citizen Kane." His reign at CBS, wrote Washington Post television critic Tom Shales, could be summed up as more than five decades of "brilliant brinksmanship, salesmanship, statesmanship, and showmanship.""

"CBS reaped a publicity bonanza from La Cadena de las Americas (Network of the Americas). Fortune magazine devoted six pages to Paley's triumphant blow-by-blow account of his negotiations, filled with lofty pronouncements ("We are far too prone to think of Latin Americans as a mass of black-haired, backward people who owe what security they have, in the midst of their well-costumed revolutions, to the Monroe Doctrine and North American cash")."

"Just continue to help and guide the parishes, continue to reflect on the challenges of Vatican II. The church is meant to serve the people through the parishes. Continue to support the priests as well."

"The Church in the West is a quite historic church, and its history is very rich, especially in our communities where all the early bishops were French, they came to this area to Santa Fe with Archbishop Lamy. Probably in Chicago the history gets a little lost over time as the city develops, grows. Here there’s that deeper sense of historicity, with the fact that the church has been richly engaged with this community from the very beginning."

"I put a high priority on communications. I think we can't over communicate."

"You've got that personality that people are drawn to and like to be around, and it's because of the joy you bring. If we believe what is in the Gospel, how can we not be filled with joy? You exemplify it."

"Be a true shepherd to your people — caring, loving and available. Although you will not always succeed, a loving shepherd will make an impact for years to come. Don’t neglect your own spiritual life. The temptation, when priests get busy, is to give up times of prayer and spiritual development in order to do more pastoral work."

"We all benefit when we stamp out injustice. We are all healthier when reproductive care is available to our communities. We are all free only if we are all free."

"If there's anything more exhausting than having to battle for our basic human rights, it's letting them go without a fight."

"Justice for all means reproductive justice, gender justice, queer justice. Liberty for all means the all-inclusive freedoms that guarantee every person agency over their own body."

"Here in Boston, in Massachusetts, we will do what we do best: We will fight back, fiercely—for our freedoms and for each other. This moment does not belong to the far right. It belongs to us, like our bodies. And we decide what to do with it."

"Boston is not a city that takes our rights lightly. Here in the birthplace of revolution, we have always, always fought for each other. We're damn good at it."

"Our movement is a continuation of that activism and community, showing everyone what’s possible when we all dig in and push for what we truly deserve. And what we deserve is a Boston where all of us are seen, heard, treasured, and valued — a Boston for everyone. .. We are ready for every Bostonian to know that we don’t have to choose between generational change and keeping the streetlights on; between tackling big problems with bold solutions and filling our potholes; to make change at scale and at street level. We need, we deserve, both. All of this is possible. …These things are possible. And today, the voters of Boston said all these things are possible, too. .. I want to be clear: It wasn’t my vision on the ballot. It was ours, together. Over 10 years in City Hall, and in every neighborhood, connecting with all of our residents I’ve seen and experienced just how big an impact local government makes in people’s lives. And I’ll never stop fighting to make our systems work for all of us. .. And although we put in a lot of work to get to this day, our movement does not end here. We have a lot of work to do. So let’s dig in. .. Thank you for placing your trust in me to serve as the next mayor of Boston. So let’s celebrate tonight and tomorrow we’ll continue the work together. Thank you everyone."

"City government is special. We are the level closest to the people, so we must do the big and the small. Every street light, every pothole, every park, every classroom lays the foundation for greater change. Not only is it possible for Boston to deliver basic city services and generational change, it is absolutely necessary in this moment. We'll tackle our biggest challenges by getting the small things right, by getting City Hall out of City Hall into our neighborhoods, block by block, street by street. .. After all, Boston was founded on a revolutionary promise that things don't have to be as they always were. That we can chart a new path for families now and for generations to come, grounded in justice and opportunity. And we can take steps to raise us all up to that promise together. .. The first time I set foot in City Hall, I felt invisible. But today I see what's possible in this building and I see all the public servants raising us up. Front line workers, first responders, teachers, bus drivers, building inspectors, city workers. I am deeply honored to work alongside you, and I ask everyone to join me in expressing our gratitude for your service. .. Boston, our charge is clear. We need everyone to join us in the work of doing the big and the small, getting City Hall out of City Hall into our neighborhoods and embracing the possibility of this city. The reason to make a Boston for everyone is because we need everyone for Boston right now. We have so much work to do and it will take all of us to get it done. So let's get to work."

"None of us move through this world as individuals in isolation. We are all the constellations of people in our lives who believe in us, trust us, and empower us to do the work that it takes to make each moment possible."

"Anyone in a position of leadership should be using that position to build trust in vaccines."

"What we need to just connect all the dots is leadership that has that sense of bold aspiration, urgent action, and community-based vision."