I think when I finally got it in my head that I was going to do the story, I wanted to avoid doing what I thought people wanted me to do.

It's psychologically a weird experience to be so aware of the fact that the real time of your life is moving much faster than the fictional time you're trying to depict. You start to feel very weighted down sometimes.

There are some people who may not like precision in their art. They may like it to be grittier and more gestural, more of a direct expression in the way that a painter would put his strokes on canvas.

I'm always pointing things out to native New Yorkers that I think are weird about this place and their culture and all that. But I feel like my friends and family from California feel like I've totally "become a New Yorker."

When email and the Internet came along, I never publish an email address. I just stuck with this P.O. Box address.

I guess there's just a part of me that's not very enthusiastic about finding myself ten years from now halfway through a story that may or may not be any good.

One of the by-products of being allowed to start my professional career prematurely is that the evolution of my work is really evident.