I started thinking about [ what book is going to go next] when I was working on As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth.

Often they do go back and forth the whole way, and I don't know until the very end what the last line of the book is going to be. That was true here - the very last line of the book was the last thing that happened.

Some of it just involved thinking about, for example, the different kinds of science, what chemistry is.

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.

I [drinking coffee] for about an hour, I get dressed and go down in my studio, and that's a different kind of working.

I'm structured with time.

I don't like things to be static when I'm working.