Cartoonist

As for the reasons behind my retirement, they mostly center around simple fatigue and a fear that if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer, or at the very least ease into the graveyard of mediocre cartoons.

I love parasites! I can't get enough of them.

People get very passionate about saving the whale, but when something like a Florida indigo snake is endangered there are not a lot of people out there holding up placards.

Taking a solo on a tune is always a little bit scary.

I just get silly inside my head and I start to think about something and in my head I start twisting it around, contorting it and envisioning it in different ways.

People try to look for deep meanings in my work. I want to say, 'They're just cartoons, folks. You laugh or you don't.' Gee, I sound shallow. But I don't react to current events or other stimuli. I don't read or watch TV to get ideas. My work is basically sitting down at the drawing table and getting silly.

Every week when my batch of weekly cartoons would go to FedEx, it felt like a small miracle. Then in a few days, it's 'Here we go again.'

I don't think I'd know if I were sitting next to Charles Schulz on an airplane.

This was more than just a cow - this was an entire career I was looking at.

I didn't realize I was working in a family medium.

I've drawn some things that have fallen very flat.

The message is not so much that the worms will inherit the Earth, but that all things play a role in nature, even the lowly worm.

I think one thing that's important to maintain is a sense of fear, always doubting yourself... a good dose of insecurity helps your work in some ways.

With my own cartoon, it was just me being goofy by myself, but when it comes to an animated film, you're working with 45 animators and assistant animators. It's a whole different ballgame.

A lot of people think I'm going to be like someone who's stepped out of one of his own cartoons. And maybe I am. But I sure have a hard time analyzing it.

If I didn't understand a cartoon in a newspaper, I'd just turn the page.

The need for an office sort of crept up on me.

As a kid I used to raise snakes. Obviously, my social life was a bit down at the time. But it took me a while to realise that with an interest like that people are going to think there's something wrong with you.

I never have been able to understand where the humor comes from.

My first month in syndication, I made about $100. I thought it would be exciting if I ever got up to the level where I could pay my rent.