I had a lot of reading problems growing up.

My books are just pure escapism for kids.

Most kids are smarter than most grown-ups. Kids see the world in black and white... They look through all the garbage and see a world run by fools and dullards and lazy people. And there's nothing they can do about it because they have no power.

These 'mistakes' occur in my books for a reason. I have an agenda: I'm secretly trying to inspire kids to create their own stories and comics, and I don't want them to feel stifled by 'perfectionism.'

A lot of the time, a comedy script is just dialogue, and that's the main thing you have to worry about.

Comedy tends to come out of things which are quite painful and serious.

Bands on tour are very good cultivators of what's the avant-garde of comedy.

With 'J', at a deep base level, there is still some comedy, but that masculinist voice that had driven so many of my novels I suddenly did not want to occupy. I wasn't reneging on it; I just didn't want to do it.