I was a very sickly child. My parents were immigrants. They were not decorous. They were not discreet. They always thought I was gonna die.

Inside all of us is... hope. Inside all of us is... fear. Inside all of us is... adventure. Inside all of us is a wild thing.

You can't get rid of evil. We can't, and I feel that so intensely.

It was a very difficult time. I was working on [umble-Ardy] when my partner and friend was dying of cancer. We set up a room in the house to be like a hospital room. Eugene died, and then I had bypass surgery. I was doing the book to stay sane while all this was going on.

I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents!

I wanted to be acknowledged as an artist, not just some kiddie-book artist.

It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.