As I would soon learn myself, cleaning up what a parent leaves behind stirs up dust, both literal and metaphorical. It dredges up memories. You feel like you’re a kid again, poking around in your parents’ closet, only this time there’s no chance of getting in trouble, so you don’t have to be so sure that everything gets put back exactly where it was before you did your poking around. Still, you hope to find something, or maybe you fear finding something, that will completely change your conception of the parent you thought you knew.

~ Roz Chast

Roz Chast Belongings Cleaning Death Mourning Parents Perception

I gave up on ever trying to get 'my way.' I barely knew it existed.

~ Roz Chast

Roz Chast Childhood

I had to get good grades and do well in school - my mother was an assistant principal and my father was a teacher - and they took this very seriously.

~ Roz Chast

Roz Chast Good Father Mother

I've done a lot of death cartoons - tombstones, Grim Reaper, illness, obituaries... I'm not great at analyzing things, but my guess is that maybe the only relief from the terror of being alive is jokes.

~ Roz Chast

Roz Chast Great Done Illness

I'm sure that my parents' behavior has entered my work, I'm sorry to say. I don't think you need to have a difficult childhood to be funny, but it helps.

~ Roz Chast

Roz Chast Work Parents Childhood