THE CURTAIN
ON THE INTERNET ...
The internet has changed everything. There was a time when people took seven or eight seconds to look at a cartoon. But now it’s down to three or four seconds, if that. People are very impatient. They want (a cartoon) to jump at them. Cartoons are much simpler than they used to be. Maybe evolved in terms of the interior texture and so on, but they’re very simple and direct. There are good things and bad things about that.
ON DONALD TRUMP …
He’s a cartoonist’s dream, almost too much so. I notice that other people are starting to say this: He’s almost too easy to draw. There’s not a lot of challenge there. He’s a walking cartoon himself. … He’s a walking clown, everything. And so anything you do to him is believable. Anything.
ON HIS MOST HATED CARTOON ...
The most negative reaction to a cartoon was drawn in 1997. There was a terrible tragedy at Luxor, when some terrorists took great glee in beheading some children, tourists. And, being a father of young daughters, I was just furious about that. So I drew a deliberate cartoon, an insulting cartoon that was labelled something about radical Muslim terrorists and I drew them in head gear but as dogs, knowing full well – I’ve studied some religion – what an insult that is, in the Muslim religion, and then to add fury to it, I said “with apologies to dogs everywhere.” Well, it took a few days, but boy the s--t hit the fan on that one. There were demonstrations in front of the Gazette, burning me in effigy and all that sort of things. I’ve always had trouble with religion, because I’m flippant about religions. I don’t hold much belief in them.
ON UPSETTING PEOPLE ...
You get 25 letters of protest, you should pay attention. Get 4,000 and don’t bother, because it’s clearly organized.
ON REGRETS ...
I don’t regret drawing cartoons much. Because after all, what these are, they’re thoughts on a piece of paper, exaggerations, one person’s point of view.
ON WHOM HE DRAWS FOR …
Mordecai Richler once said to me, it was an interesting point of view, he said ‘You know, Terry, I write for a dozen people.’ … I write for a dozen people I know and respect. And I’ve always kind of had that. What is Josh Freed, a humour columnist, going to think of this? What is so-and-so going to think of this? Not my editors, I should add. Certainly not my editors, and certainly not the politicians.
ON THE LEFT-RIGHT DIVIDE OF MODERN POLITICS
When I first started out, it was a very different world. … I did vicious cartoons on the police back then. We were just angry at the establishment. Even though most of us were just spoiled kids ourselves and very self-indulgent. But that’s how I started out. I tempered myself over the years. I just began to realize the reality of life around us, like most other people did.
I’m still far fonder of people on the left than I am on the right. And I guess I must admit I’m a bit of a softie for people who believe in decency and doing the right thing. … I’m not an extreme leftist though, I just like the ideal of decency. I believe in decency.
I’ve never voted Tory, if that helps.
ON THE ADVICE HE WOULD GIVE HIS YOUNGER SELF TODAY
Just keep it up, keep going. Keep drawing., as I say to any young potential, hopeful cartoonist who walks in. I say you have to keep drawing and keep looking. Keep drawing and keep looking and I wish you well with it.