I obviously love those characters ['The Avengers'] with my whole heart. I was on a one-man "Luke Cage is cool" campaign for most of the Aughts. When we announced the New Avengers line-up, and Luke Cage and Spider-Woman were there, a lot of fans went, "WHAT?!?!?! Bulls--t!" And I had to prove myself. They were right: I can't just announce they're cool. What's less cool than that? I have to show that they're cool! But this is way farther than I ever thought it would go.

I have a very strong color theory, for instance, where in 'Powers,' green means powerless, and red means power.The story was all there, but I was desperate to make sure that extra level was the case.

If you loved everything you were writing, you would be deluding yourself or a complete and absolute narcissist. It's not about liking what you write, it's about improving with every word, little by little, exploring your craft, becoming the artist you hope to be one day. And you can only do that by working at it every day. It doesn't happen overnight, it doesn't happen over a weekend, it is a lifelong pursuit.

I was there when Sam Raimi showed Stan Lee the first cut of the first Spider-Man movie. I was on a couch next to Stan, watching how special effects had finally caught up to his imagination. It was insane. And I'm thinking, "He had to wait until he was 80 years old for that to happen." When they announced 'Powers' and 'Jessica Jones,' I thought, "Oh, that's nice!"

I'm wired with a little bit of self-loathing, not that kind of self-loathing that paralyzes me, but it's there. The things I'm most loved for are sometimes the things that annoy me, not my favorite stuff, but those flashes of genius moments, they're called, I rarely see them as a one eureka light bulb idea.

But you have to look at your work with an honest critical eye. Work on the things that you need work on. Scare yourself. Surprise yourself. If you don't like the way it's going, you have complete control over changing the course. That's one of the best things about doing this.

In my mind jealousy would come with seeing people do something that makes it all look extremely easy when it's not, like artists who can draw better than I can. In college, I was different. I was so hungry that anyone else who was published - I couldn't deal with it.