In 1996, after 29 years as an artist for Marvel Comics, I got fired - 56 years old, two children still in college, and no job.

When I looked at the other artists when I first started at Marvel, I was surrounded by giants. It was very intimidating.

The Hulk is not basically violent, but only reacts violently when a threat is perceived. He has a certain passion for life. He is drawn towards kids and animals and the downtrodden.

Teaching is like flying a plane. You leave school one day feeling like you're spiraling down toward the trees, expecting that the next day the crash will come. You brace yourself for the impact, only to find that things have leveled out at treetop height, and you climb and enjoy the remainder of the flight.

Fashion is quite inclusive and good at embracing different things and different forms of beauty. It's a very liberal industry. You can be yourself.

To play a role where you get to reveal intellectual change is wonderful.

I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty, so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral.

We could only solve our problems by cooperating with other countries. It would have been paradoxical not to cooperate. And therefore we needed to put an end to the Iron Curtain, to change the nature of international relations, to rid them of ideological confrontation, and particularly to end the arms race.