I make no claim to be an authority on writing or illustrating for children.
When I first seriously decided to become a cartoonist would have been '99/2000, right before 9/11. I've been writing and illustrating stories in the world post-9/11 since then, watching the world change around me.
Before I began concentrating on writing, in my free time I was an artist, making and selling etchings illustrating stories based on my readings in classical literature.
To me, this is one of the great things about writing kids' books: the illustrations.
The good thing about writing a novel is that you're creating an imaginary world and can take a break when you need to.
I started writing songs at eight. Heartbreak songs - don't ask me why. It was the stuff I used to hear, so I imitated it. I used to write songs about guys cheating. Could you imagine!
When I'm writing fiction, I read nonfiction or biographies. Now I'm watching very old movies or old foreign films. I don't immerse myself in whatever's going on in whatever area I'm working in.
The failure of The Cable Guy impacted my career. I had to start writing and acting again.
In terms of 'Ray Donovan,' the story is so rich, the actors are so fantastic, the writing is impeccable. And it's such beautiful storytelling with complex characters.
I suppose I often think of my writing as quite impersonal. But it turned out, when my father died, writing was exactly what I wanted to do.
Heartbreak was the impetus to me writing poems and music in the first place.
I think that's the most important job of a novelist - to bring authority to their writing.
I don't think writing open-ended lyrics is necessarily an important part of writing good pop songs.
Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.
My mother inculcated wisdom in us, and I want to preserve her wisdom in writing.
In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.
I took all my TV experience and what I learned about - by writing and directing and bringing a movie to Sundance - about the realities of the independent film market: 'Transparent' is the marriage of those two situations.
Acting is easier - writing is more creative. The lazy man vies with the industrious.
Writing for the page is only one form of writing for the eye. Wherever solemn inscriptions are put up in public places, there is a sense that the site and the occasion demand a form of writing which goes beyond plain informative prose. Each word is so valued that the letters forming it are seen as objects of solemn beauty.
I'm really focused and obsessed with writing things that are specific. I don't like big rock lyrics - I find them infuriating.
