Often the energy of a piece is more exciting to me than the subject.

My parents were into 40s big band stuff, and my father was a great dancer to that kind of thing. But rock 'n' roll? No. I wanted a guitar, but my mother didn't really want me to have one. At some point I played a violin, but I didn't last long at that.

You set your reality and carefully construct it so that it has a certain feeling, an energy. That's the vital, visceral thing about making an illustration.

Time and space, and freedom. That's what I want most. Isn't that true for all of us?

In real life, people are going by fast and it's hard to draw them from my eye alone in a split second.

Both of my parents were cartoonists - they met in art school - so I was always drawing and I was the best artist in my class and all that stuff.

Like everyone, I want to make my own "fine art."