Quotes from The Cheese Monkeys

“Never fall in love with an idea. They're whores: if the one you're with isn't doing the job, there's always, always, always another.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Commercial Art tries to make you buy things. Graphic Design gives you ideas.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Kiddies, Graphic Design, if you wield it effectively, is Power. Power to transmit ideas that change everything. Power that can destroy an entire race or save a nation from despair. In this century, Germany chose to do the former with the swastika, and America opted for the latter with Mickey Mouse and Superman.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Never fall in love with an idea. They’re whores: if the one you’re with isn’t doing the job there’s always, always, always another.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Yes, Garnett Grey was an Architect. Were a psychoanalyst to approach him from behind, tap his shoulder, and say 'Humanity,' Garrett'd spin and respond, without hesitation, 'Solvable'.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Just who are the cheese monkeys? And what do they want?”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Graphic Design for its own sake will never happen, because the concept cancels itself out — a poster about nothing other than itself is not Graphic Design, it's … makin' ART.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“After age twenty-five, you're not a victim anymore — you're a volunteer.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Nothing worth knowing can ever be taught in a classroom.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Design is, literally, purposeful planning. Graphic Design, then, is the form those plans will take.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“My longing for someone to talk to made Himillsy the lightning bug in my honey jar. I punched holes in the lid so she could breathe.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“But at the end of the day, you can't major in Making Stuff, so it was Art by default.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“It's not Art. And Art is not Design.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“(...) photography opened up quite a little Pandora's box, kiddies. (...) Once we no longer had to depend on drawing and painting to record our existence — once they became an option — they mutated . . . into a form of expression. And Art for its own sake, God help us, was born.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Never let your mouth write a check that your ass can't cash.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Did they want what I wanted?
Did they want to understand, to unlock it? To decode it? To glean, to touch, to learn, to get something, to proceed, to get somewhere, to graduate, to work, to thrive; to someday, sometime, finally earn the luxury, the permission to … stop, to stop all of this, to relax, and forget?”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“On the first day of class, the Visual Arts building reclined before me like an old brick whore, egging me to show her one, last, good time. I doubted I was up to the task, but regardless, I entered from the rear, just to give myself the slightest mental edge.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“(...) I'm not much of anything, (...) besides bored and boring, punctuated by fits of scant self-amusement. And you are ...?”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Twenty-six letters: Marjorie Morningstar or Ulysses.
The man-made world means exactly that. There isn't an inch of it that doesn't have to be dealt with, figured out, executed. And it's waiting for you to decide what it's going to look like.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

“Penguin Classic, with the orange bands at the top and bottom; and the Gill Sans thirty-sixpoint title, all caps, centered and medium weight, in black on the white band in the middle. One of the designer Tschichold's prouder moments, when he finally woke the hell up and joined the twentieth century.”
― Chip Kidd, quote from The Cheese Monkeys

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Popular quotes

“Here I saw, with my own eyes, that laughter was the most terrible weapon: you can kill anything with laughter - even murder itself.”
― Yevgeny Zamyatin, quote from We

“Did you ever read Aurora Leigh? – “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes.”
― M.M. Kaye, quote from The Far Pavilions

“Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength & breath:
And the want
Of thought is death;

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die”
― William Blake, quote from Songs of Innocence and of Experience

“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five
balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends,
and integrity. And you're keeping all of them in the air.
But one day you finally come to understand that work is a
rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other
four balls-family, health, friends, integrity-are made of
glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably
scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly
understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the
beginnings of balance in your life.”
― James Patterson, quote from Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

“This is where you belong, Calla.” He pulled me closer, tilting my chin up. “Be with me. Tell me it’s what you want.”
I couldn’t tear my eyes from his. “What I want?”
“Yes. Anything, everything you need, I’ll give you. Always. I promise. Just tell me one thing.”
“What?”
“That you want this, us.” His voice dropped so low I could barely hear him. “That someday you’ll love me.”
My hands began to tremble where they rested around his neck. “Ren, you know we’re going to be together. We’ve both known that for a long time.”
He gave me a hard look. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Why are you asking me this?” I tried to pull back, but he held me against him.
The glimmer of a smile appeared on his lips. “Why not?”
My temper flared. “Are you trying to say that you love me?”
I meant it as a challenge rather than a serious question, but his eyes seemed to catch fire.
“What do you think?” He touched his lips to mine, softly at first, gradually building pressure, parting them.”
― Andrea Cremer, quote from Nightshade

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About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.