Adrian Tomine

“On a very basic, concrete level, there have been times when my work, regardless of the content, has harmed relationships because I made that work such a primary priority in my life.”

“I started publishing my comic while I was still living with my parents.”

“I was just taking my sketchbook to Kinko's and making photocopies and hand-assembling them - folding them over and stapling them.”

“The comics work is very slow, and it basically involves working for sometimes years in isolation and not knowing how the work is going to be received.”

“I was thinking about what it was like for my parents to have a strange kid with a hobby or a pursuit that maybe they weren't that familiar with. It must have been a strange experience - nerve-wracking, in some ways.”

“The art editor in charge of the covers at the 'New Yorker' is Francoise Mouly. She's very familiar with the eccentricities and personalities of cartoonists, so working with her is very easy.”

“A lot of the qualities in 'Killing and Dying' is sort of a response to work I'd done previously. I wanted to push myself in some different directions.”

“I intentionally approached each story in 'Killing and Dying' in a different way, and that includes the writing process.”

“My responsibility is to present things in a way that is realistic and true to the multifaceted world I've known... This is how I think the world is, not how it should be.”

“I really love New York, but I have to say, the humidity during the summer is a nightmare for a cartoonist. Not only am I sweating in my studio, my bristol board is curling up, the drafting tape is peeling off the board, my Rapidograph pens bleed the minute I put them to paper... it's a disaster.”

“When I started publishing my work, one of the biggest surprises to me was the recurring question about my background and why I wasn't doing more stories about Asian-Americans.”

“All my stories take place on the West Coast - not the beach, but smaller inland towns. I feel homesick, and I find inspiration in capturing that.”

“In general, daily strips were just a regular part of my childhood. So even if I wasn't a huge fan of most of those strips, I still read them religiously every morning while I ate my cereal.”

“There have been a handful of assignments over the years that I've had to turn down due to time constraints, and I was fairly envious when I saw the finished product, beautifully illustrated by someone else.”

“It's absolutely chilling to think that I've been working on a comic-book series called 'Optic Nerve' since I was sixteen.”

“I think that if you are looking at a comic that's made by one person, that there's just a level of intimacy that I don't really see anywhere else.”

“I had a mundane, happy childhood, without much struggle.”

“What was a very private childhood hobby turned into a very a public, professional job, and I think that there's a lot of inhibition that can grow from that.”

“The basic work schedule for me is whenever I'm not doing anything more important, like taking care of my kids or something. So, it's most of the day, five days a week, most evenings and sometimes on the weekends.”

“I started my career so early and developed in print for better or for worse, so I think there's a sense some of my earliest readers are kind of copilots on this voyage with me.”