you're a product just as much. a product of a product. the people who design cars, they're products, your teachers, products. the minister in your church, another product.

As the child outlives the father,so must the character bury the author.

For the record, knowing when people are only pretending to like you isn't such a great skill to have.

Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything.

Do you remember when you were 10 or 11 years old and you really thought your folks were the best? They were completely omniscient and you took their word for everything. And then you got older and you went through this hideous age when suddenly they were the devil, they were bullies, and they didn't know anything.

Brandy is so attractive you could chop her head off and put it on blue velvet in the window at Tiffany's and somebody would buy it for a million dollars.

The only place where you can really surprise or shock the reader, or make someone laugh, is on the lower righthand corner - the very last panel - so as you turn the page, the payoff is in the upper lefthand panel. To pace every story so that there's a setup and a payoff at the page turn was a huge challenge; it's a part of the medium and you really have to learn what can be done in the medium.