When a young writer comes up to me with an ambitious idea for a 20-book series, I usually tell him to maybe try something smaller to start off with.
I really felt like it was a dangerous trap to get into, having had such great success with 'Wishes,' it just wasn't in my blood not to play it safe and just do that again.
I think when I first started out, I had a kind of an exuberance about language, comedy, narrative leaps that... stopped just short of non sequiturs. And I'm much more cautious now.
If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn’t hesitate to do so.
I would never say, 'Ooh, let's do something really dark.'
Hope but not enthusiasm is the proper state for the writer.
I would never want to hurt anyone by writing a book.
The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimise themselves in favour of the ideal. But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool. ... I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.
If I do do a sequel, I'm going to have to know for sure that the script is better than the original. So I'm going to be very careful about that because I'm not eager to repeat myself.
A writer should never allow himself to be lulled out of the vigilance native to his profession.
Amateurs... venture into scenes that a writer with more experience (and more professional concern) would bypass or eschew altogether.
Honestly, I wanted to play it safe with my first film; I didn't want to do something completely out of the box.
I'm not afraid of writing about sensitive subjects, but I want to be careful how I do so and I know not all readers will think I have been, of course.
I can't do the terrible mistake of thinking audiences are dumb and will accept anything I do. I want to be cautious about my choices.
Sometimes I feel like every movie I make could be the last. I know that's not really the case, but if I think about it that way and I'm very careful, then maybe I can build a career, movie by movie, that I'm happy with.
You get committed with what you put in songs. It made me wary of who and what I include, because that's there forever.
I'm always the last person they go to with a sequel, because I'm the most skeptical. You know, I'm very proud of what we've done, and I don't want to screw up our series.
Student cartoonists as well as professionals should always be careful that they're not doing a cartoon that already has been done.
