It's gratifying to hear that from people who care about comic art. I never know what to make of it when someone writes to say, "Calvin and Hobbes is the best strip in the paper. I like it even more than Nancy."

Instead of asking what's wrong with rampant consumerism, we ought to be asking, 'What justifies it?' Popular art does not have to pander to the lowest level of intelligence and taste.

The strips I admire go farther than a gag a day, and take us into a special world.

Hobbes: How come we play war and not peace? Calvin: Too few role models.

Animation, by necessity, is a team sport, and the fewer people with input into my work, the better I like it.

If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I'll bet they'd live a lot differently.

The world of a comic strip ought to be a special place with its own logic and life... I don't want the issue of Hobbes's reality settled by a doll manufacturer.