In a recent interview with the New York Public Library, Amy Kurzweil described her cartoons as studies in “erudite silliness.” Well, Kurzweil is certainly erudite—just check out those pencil-nub earrings (Blackwings, no less, favored by the likes of John Steinbeck, Truman Capote, Stephen Sondheim, Vladimir Nabokov, and Amy Kurzweil). Also, delightfully silly—just look at her earrings. They’re pencils! Who better, then, than this fiction-M.F.A.-holding artist to offer a tutorial on drawing hilarious cartoons about characters from literature and about the literarily minded. It can be a dangerous endeavor—people don’t always love to see how you think Mr. Darcy looks. (Colin Firth or bust!) Others, including a seriously un-silly woman Kurzweil once encountered, may publicly accuse you of “stealing” Maurice Sendak’s Wild Things and demand that you be “ashamed.” Luckily, Kurzweil has suggestions for handling that, too.
—Emma Allen, New Yorker cartoon editor
Do you draw with your left or right hand?
Right.
What art do you have hanging on your studio walls/above your drawing desk?
A wood painting of Borges that a friend made for me that cracked and I glued back together. Then a million of my own cartoons tacked up with string, because I’m too lazy to put any of them away in my labyrinthine cartoon-filing system.
Do you snack while you draw? If so, on what?
I don’t snack while drawing. Should I be snacking? Surely I’d get potato-chip grease on the pages.
Do you listen to music or podcasts while you draw? If so, specify.
While I sketch, I sit in silence, like a weirdo. Music tends to make me want to dance, which can be distracting. When inking, I like listening to podcasts: I really like personal-story shows like “Heavyweight” and anything from Mermaid Palace.
What object or setting do you absolutely hate drawing?
I don’t like drawing straight lines! I prefer fleshy things like, people and animals. The worst things to draw are phones, especially if people are holding them with their hands, as they always are.
What’s your favorite New Yorker cartoon trope or cliché (e.g., desert island, grim reaper, Rapunzel tower)?
I’ll go with the Moby Dick trope, because whales are easy to draw, and I like a good metaphor for the unattainable.
If you could have dinner with one cartoonist, living or dead, tonight, who would it be?
Is this, like . . . Are you arranging a thing? Can you see if Roz Chast is available? Also Chris Ware?
What would you serve?
I have to cook?!
What was your favorite cartoon (strip or animation) as a kid?
I loved “Life in Hell,” by Matt Groening, and Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes,” of course.
What did you spend your first New Yorker cartoon-sale check on?
Rent!
If you had to get a tattoo (or new tattoo) right now, what would you get?
Me? A tattoo? Who am I, a cool person? I don’t like pain.
Dogs or cats?
Cats.
