No one blames themselves if they don't understand a cartoon, as they might with a painting or 'real' art; they simply think it's a bad cartoon.

During my Austin years, I was drawing a regular strip for the University Of Texas newspaper, going to school, delivering blood, and trying to change my approach and 'style' as much as I could, since I knew that I'd calcify as I got older.

I guess I just don't like being physically in front of people I don't know very well, because I expect to be 'seen through,' or, even worse, instantly hated.

I think it has most to do with the way in which a story is told, whether it feels real either via the music of the telling or the 'honesty' of the story.

Well, there are better cartoonists now than there ever have been. I firmly believe that. There’s some amazing work being done.

It’s somehow more comforting to imagine that one’s suffering is unique, and to measure against what one doesn’t know, rather than against what one does.

Comics, at least in periodical form, exist almost entirely free of any pretense; the critical world of art hardly touches them, and they’re 100% personal.

Understand that being able to say, ‘I don’t know what to do with my life’ is an incredible privilege that 99% of the rest of the world will never enjoy.

Comic strip is almost like music on a page that you perform in your mind. It’s not just pictures. There’s a particular rhythm and structure to it that is unlike anything else. It literally is like music. You hear it in your mind as you read it.

I still can’t get over the idea that respectable adults now go to see superhero movies and that such films get reviewed in the ‘New Yorker.’ Clearly, I am seriously out of step with the times.