That's been my main interest for the last 15 years, is to really make sure the story and the characters take precedence over everything else, and that I give them everything I can to make them exist as actual people.

I never know if a book is crazy or not. There's that fear - this is the one that will end it all.

I knew how to draw all of the different smokestacks on the old trains and all that stuff, and then I realized that if I can draw trains, which is the thing I was probably the least interested in in the world at the time, I can do anything and find a way into it that will be interesting.

I had no television when I was little, just a stack of old, beat-up comics from the 1950s and 1960s.

I'm more interested in characters who are a little difficult.

I actually start drawing things. Usually they're abandoned before I commit too much time and effort.

I never feel there's anything I can't do.