We have to understand how the extremists got the way they are. Without that kind of understanding, we'd never really get to know them. I put in nothing about their childhoods. But what I have put in is stuff about the weird symbiotic relationship between us and them.

Bedlam: an institution with a history so fearsome it gave its name to a synonym for chaos and pandemonium.

Ever since I learnt about confirmation bias I've started seeing it everywhere.

Well, I had nightmares when I was doing the Klan story all the time. I had a recurring nightmare of basically being exposed as a Jew inside the Klan compound.

Sometimes labeling is only useful, like with OCD. Once you're labeled you can be treated. On other occasions labeling leads to tyranny, like with childhood bipolar disorder in the U.S.

My paranoia never ends, but I haven't been paranoid about being spied on my shadowy forces for some time now.

At first, I did stories on people who were maybe just eccentric. Omar was a natural progression from that.