I found English to be a sort of Thomas Hardy aversion therapy.

I was writing the kind of comic that would make me, at age 26 or 27, go down to a comic book store every month and spend my $2. That was my starting point. I wanted to write a comic that I would read. And that's still my agenda.

His name is Marcus: he is four and a half and possesses that deep gravity and seriousness that only small children and mountain gorillas have ever been able to master.

For me, I would rather read a good book, from a contented author. I don't really care what it takes to produce that.

When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thickskinned, to learn that not every project will survive.

I love doing the readings. The readings are the fun bits... The readings are probably the things that actually keep me going on these. If I couldn't do the readings, I wouldn't do the [signing] tours. I get to stand up there and read to a bunch of adults who in many cases nobody's read to in years, since they were about five. They just squat on the floor. That's enormously enjoyable.

Don't start anything you're not prepared to finish.