I guess I just don't like being physically in front of people I don't know very well, because I expect to be "seen through," or, even worse, instantly hated.

The thing I like most about books is that anybody can afford them. They have an innate valuelessness.

Fortunately, I'm able to make a living from comics, so I'm privileged enough to be quite choosy, though most cartoonists can't afford to be. It's really an uncomfortable situation, since I'm not an illustrator, though I do get calls from morally indefensible businesses offering me money to decorate their ambitions. It's extremely rare, almost unheard of, in fact, that I am asked to do a comic strip. Do writers get calls to pen Toyota advertisements? Do composers get asked to write chamber pieces about exercise machines?

Sometimes I get worried I'm getting too caught up in the nauseatingly oily smoothness of my own line, when all I'm trying to do is make it as clear as possible.

I think cartooning gets at, and re-creates on the page, some sixth sense ... in a way no other medium can.

I think it has most to do with the way in which a story is told, whether it feels real either via the music of the telling or the honesty of the story.

I have a preponderance to look smug in photos; something to do with the way my mouth turns up at the corners.