Those lectures were just terrible, ... I would draw this little rat who was on four legs. Whatever thoughts I had for the day I gave to him. It was therapeutic.

Whenever I see people with their collars up, I'm tempted to point it out to them like you would for someone who has a food stain on their shirt or food in their teeth, as if to say, 'Your fashion sense is so offensive I'm assuming it's some sort of accident you'll want to fix.

I was a total stranger to him, and he let me sit down at his table and we talked for an hour, ... I took a picture with him. He looked at some of the strips that I had been doing and gave me some tips. Man, I was on cloud nine.

The phrase 'I just turn on my monkey and it makes me feel good' sounds very dirty, but I can't explain why. It's great to try to use expressions like that on the comics page. People want to complain but they can't, because they can't figure out quite what they should be complaining about.

If you see me on the comics page, you assume total smart-ass, with no regard to the older strips, ... When it comes to Peanuts, at least, it couldn't be further from the truth. I probably know more than anybody you'd ever meet.

I like characters like Ignatius Reilly in 'A Confederacy of Dunces' and Ricky Gervais's character in 'The Office.' They think one thing about themselves, but the truth is as far from that as it can be. So I began to think about how to put that kind of character in a book for kids.