Wait a minute! This is grass! We've been eating grass!

The idea for any cartoon (my experience, anyway) is rarely spontaneous. Good ideas usually evolve out of pretty lame ones, and vice versa.

The great thing about this jungle of ours is that anyone of you could grow up to be Lord of the apes.

The message is not so much that the worms will inherit the Earth, but that all things play a role in nature, even the lowly worm.

Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period of time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.

I never liked my own species. On why so many of his comics are about animals, in an interview.

I think I'm maintaining the quality, but internally I'm paying for it.