Tomi Ungerer

. . . I was amused by the sheer clumsiness of the drawings. I guess if they were perfect, they would be without charm. I think that’s the problem with far too many books nowadays—they’re so well drawn! My God, what’s talent? (laughter) I could have never reached this kind of perfection. But the perfection takes away from spontaneity.
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I made it a point in my life to not believe in hope. I believe in despair; despair is my fuel. Without despair, I would have hardly brought in any of my major drawings. By fighting my despair, to get it out of my system, I made—we’ll call it my talent, if I have any. That’s very important. The moment you hope, you have the risk of disillusion. Why take risks? I think one just has to deal with reality and fate as it is given to you. As I always say, give destiny a destination. If you have no problems, and nothing happens to you, then what are you going to learn? You have nothing to compare your happiness to.

I can fight for peace, because I’ve seen the war. It’s worse than ever now. I always thought that education could help improve mankind, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. There is la condition humaine, the human condition. There’s no way to change that. Nobody can save the world. The only thing we can do is our little bit. I think it’s so important to just smile at people, to open up to everybody, to make your own little specks of peace around you. It’s a matter of being an idiot.

- Tomi Ungerer

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