When you hire that first person then you're a boss. You've got performance reviews. You've got complaints about not making enough money. You've got people who are just going to sell your story to the tabloids.

I've been drawing my whole life. My mom says my sister and I were drawing by age 1. Animation seems a real natural extension of drawing as a way of telling a story visually.

You eat and sleep it all day long and play on the streets until mom calls you in. My story is no different than anybody else's.

When I was little we lived on 8 acres and my mom had a horse. But when I was 7 my mom kicked my dad out and then in order to feed us five kids she got critters cheap or for free and raised them for food. We milked a cow raised chickens pigs and beef cattle. We heated our one-story house with wood and stayed cold all winter.

It was definitely a part of our life. I mean my mom had both her brothers and her fiancee in Vietnam at the same time so it wasn't just my dad's story it was my mom's story too. And we definitely grew up listening to the stories.

I've always been homeschooled so doing it on set is kind of the same thing. My mom makes it very interactive - we'll get a book on chocolate and learn how to make it or she will buy antique items. I love military history the mechanics and strategy of it.

My mom has a tape from when I was like 2 years old talking with my grandma telling her a story that's really elaborate about werewolves and wolves.

I had ridiculous amounts of energy. Mom's like you're driving me crazy - do you want to try gymnastics? From the moment I started it I loved it and it kind of was like storybook from there.

I heard the Beatles and the Stones and Mom bought me an electric guitar. I played lead for four years and then switched to bass. One day someone suggested that I should sing so I sheepishly stepped up to the microphone and the rest is rock history.

For example I loved English and history at school. I would have loved to have done a degree in either. But my Mom said I didn't have time for university.