It is hard to produce work in New York. You kind of have to center yourself - do some Zen meditation exercises and just focus. It is very distracting, and money, of course, is an issue.

I kept wanting to push my image as validity; I wanted to see my portrait on a wall and know it was okay.

For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not.

I needed to create something I could take with me wherever I went.

Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness and your black presence.

I dont think about race before I start drawing. I think about how to make that mark to fit whatever purpose I need it to fulfill.

The graphic style itself is influenced by a lot of very layered and detailed comics that I read as a kid, like Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue.

I moved around a lot when I was a child; two of the houses I grew up in have totally disappeared. One was burnt in a riot, and the other was pulled down.

Loving you was like going to war I never came back the same.

Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.

I will be the last person to condemn ALF [the Animal Liberation Front].

Why does a salmon rise? Why does a small boy cross the street just to kick a tin can?

Just once I’d like to meet a fella who isn’t a phony. Somebody who doesn’t wanna buy me a fur so he can show me off to his boys.

I felt my father's presence with me, helping me to commit to paper the feelings I had. I really heard my father speaking to me from the other dimension

I am happy in my prison of passion

It's the bringing together of knowledge and wisdom that is a great part - perhaps the greatest part - of our life's journey.

The characters in a children's book must reach into the heart of the reader on page one. Emotional content is the main reason a child and a parent will go back to a book again and again.

While eating your appetizer, don't be concerned with dessert.