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I'm a better editorial cartoonist by default because so many editorial cartoonists out there are so awful.

I have no idea what readership is of written editorials, but it doesn't come anywhere close to the readership of editorial cartoons.

There are a lot of really great cartoonists out there. It's nice to be thought of as one of them.

With a standard editorial cartoon, you're taking tons of information and synthesizing it down to a single bite - a single moment in time. With animated editorial cartoons, it's more storytelling.

Editorial cartoons are about concept. The illustration is merely a vehicle to convey a point of view. We're here to protect and inform the public, to attack and repel those who do not agree with our long-term shared interest.

Editorial pages all say, 'Well, the other guy has a point, too. It remains to be seen how this will come out. We certainly hope it comes out fine; blah, blah.' Cartoonists don't go that way. Our job is to stick out our tongues, to show a big raspberry to whatever pompous jerk happens to be mouthing off.

People really love editorial cartoons, and I think publishers understand that.

If you're a balanced cartoonist, you're not a cartoonist. You definitely have to have a bias.

As an editorial cartoonist now, I live for those moments of inspiration, and it is exhilarating to be inspired by a topic, have an opinion on the topic, come up with a good cartoon on the topic, and to draw it and get it in the paper the next day. That is what I live for.

My transition from wanting to be a cartoonist to wanting to be a writer may have come about through that friendly opposition, that even-handed pairing, of pictures and words.