Cartoonist

I was a lawyer for 10 years, and when you're in law, things really have to get done, or somebody sues you. It's a great trick.

When you do anything creative, you really have to live entirely in that world. I think my ability to do that is what makes me such a bad dinner guest. I'm always looking over someone's shoulder, taking in stuff around the room, immersed in the world of whatever I'm writing about, and keeping the characters completely in my head.

Brits have a better sense of humor in most ways. It's darker, more cutting.

Basically, I learned to read by reading 'Peanuts,' just wanting to know what they were saying. I was 4 or 5 or whatever. I think it's a fairly common story.

I don't pay that much attention to sales figures or awards. To me, the big question is: 'Did you influence the next generation?' That's my goal.

The principles of comedy are the principles of comedy. I can hear funny.

Maybe the bar is low, but most of the strips that are 50, 60, 70 years old that are on their second or third generation of artists, the humor is pretty bland. There are others by people that were raised on 'Family Guy' or 'South Park' that are edgier. Mine's not as edgy as those, but it's edgier than 'Beetle Bailey.'

I guess that compared to other comic strips, I'm edgy. But put me along something like 'South Park,' and I'm 'Captain Kangaroo.'

It seems so absurd to get really mad with a cartoonist over a comic strip. It's sort of like getting in a fight with a circus clown outside your house. It's not going to end well.

We need more cartoonists to truly retire when they retire, and not run repeats.

I want a career writing these novels that I can be proud of. And then I want one as a screenwriter.

A comic strip has a rhythm and a pattern, and you got to get in and out quick. So you set up a joke, tell the joke, and done.

A biscuit in the States is something you would put gravy on with dinner, and it's not sweet in the least!

I'm 12 years old in my head.

This is every creative person's dream - a hobby that I'm lucky enough to get paid for.

Repeats are the absolute soul-crushing killers of the comics page.

I have days where the only words I say are to the person making my sandwich at the grocery store.

I never feel burdened or overwhelmed by my work. People tell you to find something you love for a career, and I have. That makes me feel very lucky.

I do what makes me laugh.

The only thing I learn on a daily basis from law school is that I disliked it and the law so much that it's constantly this fire at my heels.