I never thought I would work in mainstream superhero comics or Valiant or Marvel. I just set out to make the kinds of stories I wanted to make, which at the beginning was small personal stuff like 'Essex County.'
I happen to be a pessimist, and maybe that's a good thing because I don't stop to smell the roses - which is not a good personal thing. I don't stop and enjoy those moments... Always on to the next and never in the moment.
The personal thing is something I have never talked about. And I never will. That is prohibited. My job is public. But that's it. When you're not working, you don't have an obligation to be public.
The act of writing is a way of tricking yourself into revealing something that you would never consciously put into the world. Sometimes I'm shocked by the deeply personal things I've put into books without realizing it.
I've always been able to decide what was more important at different points in my life, but I never gave up personal things to work, never.
I've never been an optimist, but that's fine because pessimists have the possibility of being agreeably surprised.
I don't know a kid who grew up in the '90s who wasn't obsessed with Disney, and I guess I never grew out of that phase, honestly. It's not just Disney: it's anything that has to do with fairytales for me. I think I just have Peter Pan Syndrome or something.
We cannot forget about Rachel Maddow. She is the Peter Pan of MSNBC. But instead of never growing up, she never gets to the point.
Peter Sellers was a solitary character, always preferring to hide behind a mask, and consequently, you never really got to know the real Sellers.
Actually going to the supermarket to get my own groceries was a revelation. I'd never had to fill the fridge before, do my laundry, put petrol in my car. It was scary - but there was a kind of joy about it, too.
My critics are pretty tough. I've never been one of the music industry's pets.
A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt.
'The Phantom of the Opera' is the biggest thing I've ever done, bigger even than 'Cats' which, in itself, I never thought we'd top.
It never occurred to me that 'Phantom of the Opera' was the sort of subject that I'd want to do, because I just thought it was something that would be a bit jokey. 'Til I read the book.
It will be a pity if women in the more conventional mould are to be phased out, for there will never be anyone to go home to.
My ever-present mania meant I was never phased by staying up twenty hours a day or by the different time zones. I was Superman.
What I know for sure is that we are all created with this phenomenal force inside of us that can have us withstand - that God never gives us more than we can handle.
Sally Field looks amazing in general, never mind her age! She's a phenomenally talented actress and has had a career spanning so many decades.
There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said: 'Go and become a philanthropist.' I said, 'No, I can do that in the business world, create a different kind of business - a business based on selflessness.'
My life has been going in ways I never could have dreamed of - doing the closing celebration for the Olympic Games and being appointed the creative chair for jazz at the L.A. Philharmonic. So I've just decided I'll go with my flow and be very prepared.
