Quotes by Charles Schulz

Introducing Charles Schulz

Charles Monroe Schulz was born on November 26, 1922, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Carl Schulz, a German immigrant barber, and Dena Halverson, a Norwegian-descended housewife. As an only child, he grew up in the Twin Cities area, primarily in St. Paul, with a brief period in Needles, California, during the Great Depression. His love for comics emerged early, earning him the nickname "Sparky" from an uncle just days after his birth, inspired by the horse Spark Plug from the Barney Google comic strip. This nickname stuck, reflecting his lifelong passion for cartooning. As a young boy, Schulz enjoyed reading the funny pages with his father and began drawing his own pictures by age six, often featuring his family dog, Spike, who later inspired Snoopy. His artistic talent was recognized early; a kindergarten teacher praised a drawing of a man shoveling snow with a palm tree, predicting he’d become an artist. Despite this encouragement, Schulz was shy and reserved, a trait that followed him through his school years at Richard Gordon Elementary and Central High School in St. Paul, where he skipped two grades but struggled socially as the smallest in his class.