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.

I've kept voluminous diaries since I was eighteen, and do a lot of experimental writing.

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.

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.

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