By the time I finished the book [All Alone in the Universe], Robin Roy was saying, "More pictures!"

The morning time is also a time when I look at what I did yesterday. That's often a jumping-off point for today.

It's one of my favorite times of day. I'll have an array of notes, things that I want to think about. Something will start to take shape, and I'll play around with it. It's not usually an intense time. It's sort of a playful time. But it's when some really good thoughts arise.

It's really daunting when you have just spent a lot of time on something to think about tossing it out. But once you've started something better that's working right, then it's pretty easy to let the first one go.

I'm heavily influenced by Edward Ardizzone, how he has people talking in little speech bubbles. I love those. And also Edward Gorey. Those are two of my favorite people.

With most of my books, there are some parts that pop up right away, and other parts I have to wait for.

I know if I did that [career as painter] all the time I would get tired of it.