A friend of mine once, when I was 11 years old, mentioned that there was a youth theater, a local amateur youth theater nearby where young people could go every Sunday. And that's where it began, really.

I try to be respectful and talk to any fan and sign anything that anyone wants. Without the fans, you're not much. You need fans to do this job. I've got a nice little following, and it seems to be growing as each thing comes out.

I want to do something original rather than interpret someone else's performance, which is always the risk - even if it's only in a subconscious way. I want to concentrate on giving my own fresh interpretation.

It's so much nicer to be able to do your job with someone who's helping you, and you're helping them. Then, it becomes a tennis match where you're hitting the ball back and forth, and you're a team.

Music helps me immeasurably in the writing process.

I have a certain amount of creative energy, and it used to go painting. Now most of it goes to music. I like to make things. I treat the songs more like poems than prose, so in that sense, I don't really have a point to make. I just try to be surprised.

You gotta trust your artist. I love writing pages without dialogue, which seems weird, I guess. But few things are as powerful in comics as a really strong silent page.

Doing 'White Collar,' quite often my character goes undercover, so therein lies the compounding of the imagination. I get to play Peter Burke and then someone else when Peter Burke goes undercover.