People who are doing really hard work because they love it and it makes them happy. Anyone who has every done something on their own and had it succeed. _DC: _I get inspired by my friends and by people who are making things that are just so solid that you can't imagine anyone looking at the end result and being upset by it. GD: What inspires you? What makes you tick? How do you keep your childlike perspective on life?

I've thought of changing it several times but girls think it is cute, which is pretty much how I gauge whether or not most of the things I am doing are worth doing. I'm not sad at all but my friend took the picture and all the smiling ones we took looked weird. GD: Why do you look so sad in the photo on the 'About' page on your website?ĭC: Hahaha. A pretty default parent thing to do, I know, but I really wanted to write something for him while he was still young and impressionable. GD: Did you get started doing your more whimsical, kid-targeted drawings/poems after your son was born or have you been doing that for even longer?ĭC: No, those were definitely a direct result of having a kid.

I guess that's what I meant by that quote. Of course I said yes, and we made this really rad project called We Love You So and therein lies the perfect merger of doing rad things, paying rent, and working with adult companies (in this case Warner Bros.). For instance, after finishing An Awesome Book, Spike Jonze got in touch with me because he liked the book and my blog and asked if I wanted to help put together a blog project for the release of Where The Wild Things Are. In doing that you often end up making really strange things for really adult companies. I've tried to keep things at a pretty even split for the past few years and it's worked out very well. Best case scenario, you get to do both of those things at once.

In Los Angeles a lot of times people live a sort of dual life working on the projects they love while also working on the projects that help pay the rent. _DC: _Well that's when I'm not writing for children. GD: You say on your website that what you do is 'writing for adults and the companies adults run, drawing pictures for those adults, and reading things out loud'. GD: Well, considering your other awesomeness, I guess we'll let that slide.

An awesome book by dallas clayton