You can't know what a book is about until the very end. This is true of a book we're reading or writing.

I found myself compelled, like this weird, shameful compulsion to draw cute animals.

I do love to eavesdrop. It's inspirational, not only for subject matter but for actual dialogue, the way people talk.

Cartoonist was the weirdest name I finally let myself have. I would never say it. When I heard it I silently thought, what an awful word.

When I work on a book, I usually start with a question. And I don't sit around and go "I need to write a book. What's a good question?" It will be a question that's just clanging around in my head.

I remember my comic strips being called "new wave." It bugged me.

By the 6th grade I stopped doing ordinary things in front of people. It had been ordinary to sing, kids are singing all the time when they are little, but then something happens. It's not that we stop singing. I still sang. I just made sure I was alone when I did it. And I made sure I never did it accidentally. That thing we call 'bursting into song.' I believe this happens to most of us. We are still singing, but secretly and all alone.