Impressing a bunch of snooty teenagers is a pretty lame life goal to have.

I'm fortunate enough to get to make books for a living, so I spend my entire workday alone in my studio quietly doing my favorite thing in the world. When I need a break from that, it's usually because I'm desperate to see other human beings again!

In animation and comics, the viewer breezes past the drawings. But with picture books, each page is going to be stared at and touched and read over and over. Maybe even chewed on a little. Everything needs to be thoughtful and economical, thirty-two little masterpieces.

Knitting is repetitive, rewarding, and calms me down like a warm bath. But it takes up juuuust enough brainspace that I can't come up with ideas. Which is too bad, because I love multitasking.

Animation taught me to draw quickly and clearly and to communicate a character's feelings through his or her body language and facial expressions.

You work for so long on a graphic novel that it's easy to question your ideas or to burn out on drawing. But you plug away at it and trust in the story you want to tell. It's a marathon, but the finished product is really satisfying.

I love drawing what the character is feeling, in my comics, with no dialogue.

Comics taught me how to write, and also patience and confidence.

Why can't I just Google it like everything else?! I hate you public library system!

You may look normal like everyone else, but you're not. Not on the inside.

I'm one of those people with restless hands. I need to be doodling, or biting my nails, or making socks.

I could lose myself forever in that dark hair and those sweet love handles.

I think sometimes older people wind up being a little childlike. They've done their time, now they get to do what they want.