OF COURSE I'd like to be the ideal mother. But I'm too busy raising children.

Many of my cartoons are not a belly laugh. I go for nostalgia, the lump in the throat, the tear in the eye, the tug in the heart.

Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.

Many of the network television shows have done takeoffs on 'Family Circus,' including 'David Letterman,' 'Friends,' 'Roseanne,' and others, and, in my estimation the use of them is a compliment to the popularity of the feature, which just by mentioning it's name sets up the image of a warm, loving family-type feature.

God put Santa Claus on earth to remind us that Christmas is 'sposed to be a happy time.

I don't have to come up with a ha-ha belly laugh every day, but drawings with warmth and love or ones that put a lump in the throat. That's more important to me than a laugh.

I never studied art, but taught myself to draw by imitating the New Yorker cartoonists of that day, instead of doing my homework.