I've had editors over the years who couldn't find a clue if it was stapled to their butt.

I hate the crazy, neurotic characters beyond a certain point.

I'm a neurotic New York Jew by birth. Creating characters is second nature to me.

I had never really thought of myself as a writer; any writing I had done was just to give myself something to draw.

I've never sat down and thought about the difference between plot and theme. To me, that's never been important.

I was a very sickly kid. While I was in the hospital at age 7, my Dad brought me a stack of comic books to keep me occupied. I was hooked.

In these litigious times, if you're a beginner, it's becoming harder and harder to get your work to the people who might actually be able to hire you.

A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.

When I'm my own editor, there's very little difference between the first draft and the final. I write what feels right to begin with. I rarely make any major changes.

Sometimes you're not even sure which of your stories were failures. There are things I've written that I thought were complete catastrophes when I finished with them that have gone on to generate some of my most positive feedback.

A writer writes. Period. No matter if someone is buying your work or not.

I've had editors over the years who couldn't find a clue if it was stapled to their butt.

Were there stories I wrote along the way that were terrible clinkers? God, yes. But they were all a product of their time, and I did the best I could.

I think there's something inherently dishonest in trying to go back and mess with the past.

People who were more concerned with themselves and looking good to their readers then they were with the characters sacrificed a series for the sake of a story.

I would like immortality.

When I got my first glimpse of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, my breath caught. In that single instant, he was Wolverine.

There is an ancient legend which warns that, should we ever learn our true origin, our universe will instantly be destroyed.

I try not to violate what came before me and to leave lots of wiggle room for those who will follow.

I try to find what makes even the worst, most despicable character sympathetic at his or her core.

Lord of the Rings, I think, is far and away the most brilliantly done stuff.

Art is always in the eyes of the beholder. Only posterity has the right to point out our mistakes.

I always wanted to fire rays out of my fingertips.

Unfortunately, there are writers whose only concern is how good they could make themselves look on a title.

What makes a story is how well it manages to connect with the reader, the visceral effect it has.

It's all about who's where on the food chain. When I'm the story editor, I expect my writers to follow my vision. When I'm working for another editor, I'm obliged to follow their vision.

The bottom line always remains the same: What is the basic humanity of the character? How do I make them resonate with the reader?

It all depends on which side of the desk you're sitting on.

When someone writes to tell me something I've written made them laugh or cry, I've done my job and done it well. The rest is all semantics.

In general, shorter is better. If you can encapsulate your idea into a single captivating sentence, you're halfway home.

You can read a dozen different textbooks or how-to manuals that will tell you the basic rules of what makes a story - a beginning, a middle, and an end.

I've always thought of myself as an organic writer, rather than a cerebral one. I feel my way along as I go, hoping I'll get to the place I intend to reach.

I became an art major, took every art class my school had to offer. In college, I majored in Advertising Art and Design.

If a story isn't working, I'm simply unable to finish it. That's what usually tells me something is wrong.

The most unrealistic thing I've ever read in comics is when some group of characters calls themselves the Brotherhood of Evil or the Masters of Evil. I don't believe any character believes their goals to be truly evil.

I realized the only thing I owed my audience was my own judgment and my own best effort.

These days, it seems that if you're not already in place, you can't get there from here.

A friend is someone who is there for you when hed rather be anywhere else.

Honestly, I expected to get a cold reception because of my subject matter. But when editors took a look at the story I had to tell, and saw that this was not a parochial story at all, they really warmed to it.

I think that they had afforded me many opportunities to do good work there, and I think I did. It was a wonderful four years. I really worked with some great people, terrific producers, terrific editors.

So I went out and bought myself a copy of the Writer and Artist Yearbook, bought lots of magazines and got on the phone and talked to editors about ideas for stories. Pretty soon I found myself hired to do interviews and articles and went off and did them.

If it were not for the fact that editors have become so timorous in these politically correct times, I would probably have a greater readership than I have.

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

I try to help people become the best possible editors of their own work, to help them become conscious of the things they do well, of the things they need to look at again, of the wells of material they have not even begun to dip their buckets into.

There are plenty of bad editors who try to impose their own vision on a book.

Writers would submit scripts to me, and if I liked one well enough to submit to magazine editors, I had the know-how whether the story was good or bad.

I wrote poems in my corner of the Brooks Street station. I sent them to two editors who rejected them right off. I read those letters of rejection years later and I agreed with those editors.

If there had been three public editors before me, the body might have absorbed it a little bit better.

The Bush administration works closely with a network of rapid response digital brownshirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops.'