The Simpsons' was about children and married parents; 'Futurama' is about people in between; they're growing up and haven't settled down. Every other cartoon show seemed to be, you know, dumb dad, bratty kids.

My father was a really sharp cartoonist and filmmaker. He used to tape-record the family surreptitiously, either while we were driving around or at dinner, and in 1963 he and I made up a story about a brother and a sister, Lisa and Matt, having an adventure out in the woods with animals.

The Simpsons' from the very beginning was based on our memories of brash '60s sitcoms - you had a main title theme that was bombastic and grabbed your attention - and when you look at TV shows of the 1970s and '80s, things got very mild and toned down and... obsequious.

Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two half-talents and come up with a career.

We think of ourselves as our titles or our jobs or our position in a family. We depend on being praised by others. But something happens when that praise is undermined.

I owe my mum a sense of family. She has kept our family together. I have two brothers and a sister, and they all live a stone's throw away from each other in Liverpool.

I'm from a middle class family, but my father squandered all the money, so I didn't really run around with rich people.

My family and I built my whole career from scratch.