Daily Inspiration Quote by Lynda Barry

Going on Letterman is supposed to be the coronation: you made it, you’re funny, America agrees. Lynda Barry flips that myth into a body sensation - the high dive - and the metaphor does double duty. A high dive is public, exposed, timed, and irreversible. You climb while everyone watches, then you jump because not jumping would be worse. That’s late-night TV as a cultural machine: the guest performs not just material, but a version of themselves calibrated to a studio’s laughter and a host’s pacing.

Barry’s choice of “exhilarating” acknowledges the real rush of visibility. She’s not sneering at mainstream success; she’s admitting it worked on her nervous system. The turn comes with “after a while,” a phrase that carries the fatigue of repetition and the quiet dread of becoming a trick. High dives don’t turn into a hobby; they turn into an obligation. The subtext is about control: the thrill stops being yours when it’s scheduled, packaged, and expected.

As a cartoonist, Barry’s power lives in intimate frequency: the slow burn of panels, the private voice in the reader’s head, the messy, human timing that doesn’t need to “land” in 90 seconds. Letterman demands landing. So her line reads like an artist setting a boundary without pretending she’s above the party: it was exciting, it was real, and it wasn’t sustainable for the kind of work - and self - she’s trying to protect.