Bil Keane

Religion was a part of our home life when I was growing up. I attended Catholic school. It was a good education - for the spiritual end, as well as for its discipline.

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.

A hug is like a boomerang - you get it back right away.

Laughter was a part of the church services I attended as a child.

I never studied art, but taught myself to draw by imitating the New Yorker cartoonists of that day, instead of doing my homework.

I like to feel that what I'm doing portrays this: a family where there is love between mother, father and the kids. It's a subject that is near and dear to me.

We have five children whom I love dearly and have exploited mercilessly for my cartoons.

I don't have to come up with a ha-ha belly laugh every day, but drawings with warmth and love or ones that put a lump in the throat. That's more important to me than a laugh.

They invented hugs to let people know you love them without saying anything.

I did cartoons for four high school publications and then and there decided I wanted to spend my life at the drawing board.

In Roslyn, Pennsylvania, we started our real-life family circus. They provided the inspiration for my cartoons. I provided the perspiration.

Jesus must have had a sense of humor. I like to think of Him as a guy who got people to listen to Him by leaving them laughing and chuckling with one another.