Top 140 Matt Groening Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do?”

— Matt Groening

102. “I think people who work in comedy and humor are hesitant to analyze it too much, because you feel like if you take it apart, you’ll break it and not be able to put it back together again.”

— Matt Groening

103. “Think beer; drink beer.”

— Matt Groening

104. “I like the ‘Simpsons’ pinball machines. Those are pretty great.”

— Matt Groening

105. “I love the idea that we put in jokes the kids don’t get. And that later, when they grow up and read a few books and go to college and watch the show again, they can get it on a completely different level.”

— Matt Groening

106. “The nice thing about ‘Futurama’ for me personally was that it was a way to honor some of the traditional ideas in literary science fiction, not so much movie or television science fiction – although we have that too, obviously. Our situation, a workplace comedy, led to all sorts of stuff.”

— Matt Groening

107. “Buy Space Ghost cereal, but don’t eat the prizes.”

— Matt Groening

108. “Painted on shirts went over so well I thought, why not painted on pants? Well, the big shot manager at Krusty Burger didn’t agree!”

— Matt Groening

109. “Science fiction and comedy are generally a pretty bumpy mix.”

— Matt Groening

110. “I went through a phase where people would introduce me at parties as a cartoonist, and everybody felt sorry for me. ‘Oh, Matt’s a cartoonist.’ Then people further feeling sorry for me would ask me to draw Garfield. Because I’m a cartoonist, draw Snoopy or Garfield or something.”

— Matt Groening

111. “Oftentimes, what seems to be a street lunatic charging at me spouting gibberish turns out to be a devoted ‘Simpsons’ fan quoting their favorite line.”

— Matt Groening

112. “Since I was there in the very beginning, I know the history of the characters. So, I make comments about the tone and sometimes remind the writers that we’ve done that before.”

— Matt Groening

113. “When The Simpsons came around, there really was nothing else like it on TV. It’s hard to imagine, but when Fox first took the plunge with it, it was considered controversial to put animation on prime time.”

— Matt Groening

114. “My life changed when I was able to not only get seated in nice restaurants, I was given free appetizers. That was like, “Oh, my God, I’ve arrived”.”

— Matt Groening

115. “The writers led by Mike Scully are fantastic. And they’re creating original stories that not only don’t repeat what we’ve already done, they also don’t repeat anything I’ve seen on television.”

— Matt Groening

116. “The tendency in comedy is to have a character who’s stupid get more stupid, because you’re trying to top yourself and not just repeat.”

— Matt Groening

117. “How can I be expected to love someone who tries such crude manipulations as bringing me breakfast in bed?”

— Matt Groening

118. “You know, the courts may not be working any more, but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else, justice will be done.”

— Matt Groening

119. “I was always frightened by taverns. They just seemed like very unpleasant places to go.”

— Matt Groening

120. “I’m a fan of animation and so, the more stuff that doesn’t look like the other stuff that’s out there, I’m in favor.”

— Matt Groening

121. “You just have to keep in mind that the important relationship is the relationship with the audience. That’s what I try to do. Everything else is secondary.”

— Matt Groening

122. “We’ve got a bunch of new writers now who tell me they grew up watching The Simpsons. It’s bizarre, and they’re writing some very funny stuff.”

— Matt Groening

123. “I think human beings probably resonate with audiences more than bunnies, but who knows?”

— Matt Groening

124. “People go into cartooning because they’re shy and they’re angry. That’s when you’re sitting in the back of a classroom drawing the teacher.”

— Matt Groening

125. “I think when ‘The Simpsons’ first came on, there was an uproar. People got used to it. They realized the show’s really funny, it’s got a heart, so I think it’s pretty safe.”

— Matt Groening

126. “I have less to do with ‘The Simpsons’ every season, but I stick my nose in here and there. Basically, it’s just trying to keep the characters consistent and making sure the show has a soul.”

— Matt Groening

127. “The really great thing about having two TV shows going on at the same time is that I can go to one and say that I have to go and visit the other, and then I can just go home, and they don’t know.”

— Matt Groening

128. “I want it to go on, but I want us to go out on top.”

— Matt Groening

129. “One of the things I would like to do is make up stories that I would have enjoyed when I was a kid. So, if I’m thinking about an audience, it’s usually a younger version of myself.”

— Matt Groening

130. “A lot of American shows don’t last for as long as 12 episodes. They get cut after one. But certainly one of the great things about The Office in particular was that there was a beginning, a middle and an end.”

— Matt Groening

131. “Because good writing in a TV cartoon is so rare, I think the animation on The Simpsons is often overlooked.”

— Matt Groening

132. “I always thought that television was the way to go in my goal to invade pop culture because it got to towns in which there were no bookstores. That’s how I used to think of it: How do I reach kids who not only don’t read but probably have no access to much in the way of books?”

— Matt Groening

133. “My father was a really sharp cartoonist and filmmaker. He used to tape-record the family surreptitiously, either while we were driving around or at dinner, and in 1963 he and I made up a story about a brother and a sister, Lisa and Matt, having an adventure out in the woods with animals.”

— Matt Groening

134. “I think in daily newspapers, the way comic strips are treated, it’s as if newspaper publishers are going out of their way to kill the medium.”

— Matt Groening

135. “Everybody doesn’t have to get every joke. People really appreciate not being condescended to.”

— Matt Groening

136. “A lot of our writers, like Conan O’Brien, moved on to other things.”

— Matt Groening

137. “Basically, everything I try to do is to present an alternative to what somebody else is doing.”

— Matt Groening

138. “Anxiety and hostility seem to be a great part of good and bad humor. Examining humor too closely does seem to destroy it.”

— Matt Groening

139. “Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!”

— Matt Groening

140. “I think there is a certain charm to the hand drawn image that I like. My problem with CGI is that it’s so rich in texture that my eyes actually get tired. Everything is in focus down to the littlest leaf.”

— Matt Groening