Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story Quotes
Patrick Skene Catling: Can you think of any other children's author who would have an ogre that eats children as the hero?
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: New York was New York because New York was just like a fortress. Everybody who couldn't stand it anymore, all the people who wanted to do something; either went to San Francisco or they went to New York. So it was really a city of cultural refugees in a way. There's no other city in the world that I've loved as much as New York.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: I was with my friend and her father was sheriff of Amarillo, Texas. And we went there for Christmas. There I realized there was such a thing in America like segregation. I was there for Christmas and he says, 'Oh, let's have now a barbecue in nigger town. Everything was segregated. You could not have taken a black man in a white restaurant! Can you imagine a European discovering segregation in America? This is inconceivable! It was just as bad as fascism. As bad as anything I had ever seen. This is something that so totally revolted me. I mean, there's no word for it. One reads about it, but to see it and realize it; that was really the trigger. And that's why I started The Underground Sketchbook.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: It takes a lot of work to develop your talent. When I started I had a bit of a talent, and then it developed; because once you are into it, it starts growing. It's like a tree you plant, but it takes a while before it bears fruit. To have a creative spark is not enough. You have to get some gasoline for the spark to be of some use. Anger and all it's accessories is a source of inspiration.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: 've experienced war, so that made me really allergic. It made me in a way, a pacifist up to a point. When you have something like the rise of fascism or something like this, you've got to fight it. You cannot stay there and be a pacifist. But basically, I loathe the idea of war and violence because normal people are sent into the army and taught to kill another guy who's got a mother, who's got a wife and children - and there they are killing each other. I mean, this is totally ridiculous.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Jules Feiffer: I think because he was European he developed a visual sense that told the story in one shocking hit.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: What makes us different from the animals is erotica, is eroticism. It is really the intellectualization of one's fantasies. For me, even eroticism is an artistic expression. One's erotic life develops with one's imagination. Eroticism is sex with fantasy. You just do all the things, you just... you stage. It's a form of liberation.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Steven Heller: When Tomi was doing the children's books and doing the Underground Sketchbook and Fornicon, he was taking a big chance because he was breaking from type.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Maurice Sendak: It was very unusual for a children's book author to be doing so mashy different things. The political posters, the erotica... those beautiful, sumptuous albums of naked people being tortured. [chuckles]
Maurice Sendak: Who could not love it? He felt free. He didn't feel confined.
Maurice Sendak: Who could not love it? He felt free. He didn't feel confined.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: I am full of contradictions, and why shouldn't I be? Without contradictions I'd be jobless. I'd have nothing to think about.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Tomi Ungerer: The sexual revolution is - you can do anything you want as long as you don't hurt anyone! I mean, why should people be condemned by society for doing this and for doing that? The freedom for eroticism is really something I fought for. For Americans there was really a conflict between the erotic and the children's book world. It's still really impregnated with this Anglo-Saxon hypocrisy. But I never gave it a second thought. I had other things to do.
Movie: Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story