Randall Munroe quotes

Randall Munroe is an American cartoonist, author, and creator of the popular webcomic xkcd. His work blends humor, science, and technology, inspiring millions of readers with witty commentary and clever illustrations. He shares scientific concepts in accessible ways and encourages curiosity about the world. Here are 40 of his quotes:

I used to work at NASA in Virginia. It was nothing glamorous; I was just tasked with making code compile for obscure projects, and I wasn't very good at it. Now I spend most of my time drawing pictures and looking at funny things on the Internet, which in retrospect is largely what I did at my old job, too.

Randall Munroe

It's tempting to just write a comic called 'Everyone Mail Randall Munroe Twenty Bucks' - maybe it would work, and I could just close down the 'xkcd' store and sit on a beach and draw pictures and make snarky Reddit posts for the rest of my life.

Randall Munroe

Google owns YouTube, and recently, I drew a comic about an idea for a YouTube feature - which they actually took seriously and implemented. So I'm thinking that maybe we'll have a future where Google is 'xkcd.'

Randall Munroe

I read comics and I did science, and never really put them together until I accidentally found myself in the middle of one.

Randall Munroe

I don't have hard numbers about this, but the impression I get is that the amount of eyeballs you get from being on the humor shelf at Barnes & Noble - it is almost insignificant.

Randall Munroe

The thing about the Internet is that you can write something... for a very narrow audience and make a living at it.

Randall Munroe

Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to fail hilariously.

Randall Munroe

I've always thought that one of the the great thing about physics is that you can add more digits to any number and see what happens and nobody can stop you.

Randall Munroe

I think the really cool and compelling thing about math and physics is that it opens up entry to all these hypotheticals - or at least, it gives you the language to talk about them. But at the same time, if a scenario is completely disconnected from reality, it's not all that interesting.

Randall Munroe

A lot of people will refer to comics by number to me, and I'll realize they're expecting me to remember all the comics by number. And I can't even remember what I ate this morning, let alone which comic was #473!

Randall Munroe

Once I got married, I started working from an office. I found that having somewhere to go that isn't my house is mentally helpful: 'This is the place where I answer email and write blog posts,' and 'over there is the place where I do the dishes.'

Randall Munroe

What people don't appreciate, when they picture Terminator-style automatons striding triumphantly across a mountain of human skulls, is how hard it is to keep your footing on something as unstable as a mountain of human skulls. Most humans probably couldn't manage it, and they've had a lifetime of practice at walking without falling over.

Randall Munroe

It used to be if you wanted to do a newspaper comic, you had to appeal to a pretty big chunk of the newspaper's readership for them to want to keep you around. 'Dilbert' would be office humor, but even that is pretty widely experienced.

Randall Munroe

I'm sad that my childhood came just slightly before the lithium-ion-battery boom, because I would've killed for the cheap radio-controlled helicopters they have now.

Randall Munroe

The nice thing about being on the Internet is that you're not as recognisable as someone that's been on TV.

Randall Munroe

When I was in college, I had a fear of cancer.

Randall Munroe

I'm just one of those people who can always tell the same story twice, forgetting that I've told it already.

Randall Munroe

There is a danger of building an identity around the idea of being smart because it is very easy to become off-putting, to become exclusionary.

Randall Munroe

People in my world can be disdainful of political and social problems and solutions. But we're never going to stop needing those.

Randall Munroe

Lots of people in aggregate might know who I am, but they are spread around across the country and the world.

Randall Munroe

A lot of times, the idea of a comic will be, 'Wouldn't it be cool if you...' But instead of doing it, I'll draw a comic about it.

Randall Munroe

I think that putting merchandising into the hands of the artist themselves is one of the best things for the artist.

Randall Munroe