Mark Van Doren: Cheating on a quiz show? That's sort of like plagiarizing a comic strip.
Woody is the guy who made me want to be a comic. I was in heaven and couldn't stop smiling because he was my idle and 29 years after seeing Take the Money and Run, I was working for him.
Such is the nature of comic strips. Once established, their half-life is usually more than nuclear waste. Typically, the end result is lazy, rich cartoonists.
I didn't realize House would be the central character, more the bitter comic relief appearing occasionally. I relish his wounded nature - the lameness, the scarred Byronic hero.
If you look at the common denominator of all the comics who have had big success, it's being true to their nature... that's what takes a long time to learn.
There's a lot of comics writers out there whose work I appreciate and who are nice guys. I really want to work with guys I really respect and enjoy.
I certainly did feel inferior. Because of class. Because of strength. Because of height. I guess if I'd been able to hit somebody in the nose, I wouldn't have been a comic.
Comics is still my first love. But I always did other kinds of writing, too, so I think of myself as a writer first.
That's the biggest part of doing comics: You have to create stuff that makes you want to get out of bed every morning and get to work.
I often get sent scripts about little men in big situations. There's a comic element to it, which is forces stacked against this little guy, and how is he going to defeat them?
I think if you do something effectively whether you're the lover or the comic or the action guy or the villain like I play; movies are very expensive to make. Chances are you'll get asked to play that part again.
I've always felt that the comic strip medium stands equally beside all the other story telling mediums: novels, movies, stage plays, opera, you know, you name it.
I grew up as a huge comic fan and a huge Batman & Robin fan. I watched all the TV shows, went to all the movies - I even had the lunch box; man, I was in!
I think that comics can do things movies can't and vice versa. In my opinion, you only expose their weaknesses if you try too hard at making one exactly like the other.
I get frustrated by the fact that comics go on stage with some kind of agenda beyond comedy - I'm not sure it should be about that.
As you get older you're told to be sensible, but it's important for writing if you're a comic that you're able to still access that childlike thing.
I just try to keep myself a traditionalist. I liked being an underground comic doing my thing. I want to maintain that. I just do.
I'm still awaiting the idea of drawing comics for a living being a reality. I feel like I've been dodging work for 20 years, and at some point, I'll have to get a real job.
I actually very rarely see comedy myself, and although I admire the work of some comics, it does come from all over, so I'll get a charge out of some fiction writers and poets.
I get up around 7 a.m. That's very early for a stand-up comic. Then I'll have breakfast with my husband, the artist Al Ridenour, take my three dogs for a walk and commence with my work.
Few pleasures, for the true reader, rival the pleasure of browsing unhurriedly among books: old books, new books, library books, other people's books, one's own books - it does not matter whose or where. Simply to be among books, glancing at one here...
