Stephan Pastis

“I think it might surprise the average person how angry people can get over the comics.”

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

“If you put me in 'South Park,' that audience is going to fall asleep in five minutes.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“To get syndicated as a comic strip artist is as likely as winning the lottery.”

“If you're from a certain generation, you basically learn to read with 'Peanuts.' It's sort of the template for the modern strip. Its influence ceased to be noticed because it's in everything.”

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

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

“I don't like drawing characters facing right. If I tried to do that at a book signing, I'd have to pencil it first.”

“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.”

“Thomas, my 15-year-old, is effectively my editor, I've always trusted his voice, more than anybody, on the strip for years. He has one of those ears that's just tuned to the rhythm of humor, so if he says something's not funny, my stomach just hurts because I know he's right, and it's already been drawn.”

“I'm 12 years old in my head.”

“Repeats are the worst, and 'Peanuts' was the one that started that. They don't rerun the news, do they? They don't repeat any other part of the paper. Why do they do it in the comics?”

“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.”

“A stand-up comedian faces the audiences and gets their immediate feedback. I hide behind the comic strip, and unless people write to me, I don't know what they think.”

“I write for three or four hours and then hopefully I'll have something. Then I draw for the rest of the afternoon... I literally block out Wednesday-Thursday-Friday - I more or less disappear.”

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