Zine Voices

from The Book of Zines

"The only people who should publish a zine are people whose ideas bubble up like lava from a volcano. The best zines come from people who have no choice but to make their idea known. Publish a zine because every piece of journalistic writing you've every seen is wrong."
Don Smith, Teenage Gang Debs

"Starting with this issue, some of the regular contributors will no longer be in the magazine. They are nice people but also some of the most flaky, ungrateful, overdemanding jerks on the planet. They are my friends, and to not jeopardize that anymore, it'll be best for them do their own zines."
Aaron Cometbus, in Cometbus

"Why do a zine? 1. To make money. 2. For the same reason I call my friends. I have some gossip or revelation to tell, and I hope to hear some back too. 3. It's a good excuse for dates with the interviewees."
Lisa Carver, Rollerderby

"A friend and I published one issue of a zine called La Luna (our plan was to publish according to the lunar calendar). He was in a save-the-world phase and I was out to make fun of it. The result was a zine with a serious case of split personality. The first issue had an interview with the head of a hunger relief organization (his story) and a piece on having diarrhea on a first date (mine)."
Benjamin Serrato, 15 Minutes

"Publishing a zine is easy, it's cheap, it's fun, it's something to do when you're bored, it's a greeting card, it's a business card, it's expression, it's a stab at definition and critical evaluation, praise and condemnation for whomever or whatever you wanna poke or parade."
Bob Bellerue, Basurame

"Does the world really need another grubby little zine? Standard answer: None's ever been grubby in quite this way before."
John Marr, Murder Can Be Fun