I get it, cops deal with a lot, but at the same time, we crave justice, and we do want to believe things are going to be all right.

If 'Jingle Belle' harkens back to anything, it's sort of the Harvey Comics. Not really 'Archie,' but more of a teenage version of what Harvey Comics would have become, with the type of fantasy wonderland of her and her various friends.

A lot of times, female characters - particularly the villains - come off as very one-dimensional. They get the short shrift in that they're only given the snappy comeback, or they're relegated to a very stereotypical role. I want to know what's driving them - that's what's really interesting.

'Batman Beyond' started because we were tossed a curve, because the higher ups at Warner Bros. wanted a different take on him.

I wouldn't call the Joker exactly easy to write.

Bruce Wayne needs a sense of humor to do his job. Batman, for a very long time, was going to a very dark place.

If everybody's a winner, nobody has to try very hard.

My story is just my story, and it's not nearly as traumatic as some.

'Jingle Belle' spins out of my love for just sitting down and reading a good, fun Sunday morning comic strip panel.

Hugo Strange is interesting in the sense that he's a master manipulator. He doesn't really engage Batman in any sort of physical way. His weapon is his mind, and he's very incisive and clever: he reads people and sizes them up almost instantly.

Batman is dark and moody and spooky and, in some cases, methodical.

You can have villains like the Penguin, who strut around in a tuxedo with an umbrella, and Poison Ivy and all of the fantastic stuff she does, but unless there's a bit of a human in there, and unless there's a credible threat, then Batman himself doesn't work.

With 'Wonder Woman,' I did one story with Alex Ross, and I had a lot of fun doing it, but I don't think I could do a 'Wonder Woman' book on a regular basis, because there's so much history there and so much mythology and everything.

Kids love the Hulk, but they're not really sure: 'Is he a monster or is he a hero?'

I was working in cartoons. I could go to Comic-Con, buy the Hal Jordan ring, I could buy animation cels, but at the end of the day, I come back to an empty apartment. I had a life that was only around me, and when I was broken, my world was broken.

In every story I've written with Batman, there's an element of justice - you never want to have the story end on a defeatist or a cynical note.

When you do an animated series and add characters who are not from the canon, you really have to win over the hardcore fans.

I grew up loving cartoons, comics, magic, and writing.

To some degree, I don't think 'Batman' works in a completely modern city; I think Gotham has be reflective of his personality and those of his enemies.

That's the thing about writing for a lot of the villains is that, as a writer, you kind of have to put the best part of your own personality aside and instead focus on whatever little strange quirks you may have in your personality.

You have to remember, when someone hurts you, that you are so much more than what they took from you.

You have to be kind to yourself to survive in the world.

Initially, kids are attracted to Superman as a hero because he can take care of problems and still appear as friendly as your dad.

You don't have to limit yourself or feel that you've been limited by an act of cruelty.

Mickey Mouse did not stay the little squeaky guy in 'Steamboat Willie.' He went on to have many different versions.

We're all painfully aware of how suddenly violence can occur, how crippling it is, and how survivors have to find a way back from that.

As much as I love elements of Spider-Man's past, I don't really want to go back in and retell the Gwen Stacy and Green Goblin story in animation just so I can do my take on it. I don't want to redo the first 'Spider Slayer' story.

I look at the Marvel movies and the DC movies and various creators' creations, and I think, you know, that's really pretty cool.

I'm a very visual thinker, so the characters are running through my head, doing what they're doing when I'm writing them. And there'll be moments where I'll just kind of throw a look off to the side as if I'm talking to one of the characters. It's always been something that I've had with me since I was a little kid.

Quite often in comic book movies, very good actresses are relegated to being the girlfriend or the helper or the sidekick or something.

I remember when I saw 'The Dark Knight' movie, and I was sitting there watching it, and there actually came one or two places where I had trouble divorcing myself from the reality of the locations because it was filmed in Chicago, and I know that city quite well.

I looked at comics like a buffet table, where you take a little bit of something and leave the other stuff behind.

What makes Batman and what makes other superheroes work is the myth that when life is at its lowest, and when you need a hero, a hero swings down and helps you.

For years, humorous characters in cartoons have been almost exclusively male.

Batman is pretty much a self-trained guy. I think it would be fun to do a character like Superman or Captain Marvel or maybe Green Lantern, somebody who's got a completely different resource for fighting crime and fighting villains.

I think that when you've got a world in which it's plausible to have a guy dressed as a giant bat and fight evil clowns and other nightmarish freaks, I think the world has to be visually a little more arresting than a regular world.

As a writer, every time I create a character, I try to go for something to captivate the audience in some way. It's also an extension of how the audience would like to see themselves.

The old Rankin-Bass animated specials seemed to exist in a loosely shared reality, which is what attracted me to them. Santa, Snow Miser, Rudolph, Frosty, even the Easter Bunny seemed to be on nodding acquaintance with each other, even if only in cameo appearances in each other's cartoons.

I remember very vividly going to school, being very happy, and then just having guys there who were just out to make my life miserable.

I have played games like Angry Birds and, you know, Plants vs. Zombies and things like that just for fun on the phone and everything.

The agents of S.M.A.S.H. are the most powerful team in the Marvel universe in terms of muscle power.

I have a great fondness for any character I work on. Whether it's somebody like Batman or Harley Quinn or whatever character I'm writing, I just really enjoy the heck out of it, and I try to do the best job I can with it.

I'm not saying I talk to cartoon characters all the time, but the characters are very real to me. In a very non-insane way.

There's a little bit of Sid and Nancy to the Joker and Harley look, which I always felt would not be a bad look if they were in a live-action movie.

I've always felt in my own small, little way that if I could just write a story where it works out well, where the scales of justice are balanced, then that's something that I do really love to see in the world.

If you let tragedies stop you along the way, then you're never going to grow as a person.

There's something very, very liberating about Harley Quinn. Much more so than a character like Catwoman or Poison Ivy. Those are great characters. But then again, those characters are more of the femme fatale and the temptress roles.

It's a lot of fun to identify with a character who lives by their own rules.

If the opportunity came my way, if somebody wanted me to look over a script or sit in a room in sort of like a brainstorming session... I would certainly be open for that.

Characters do change over time; there are surprises, role reversals, and things like that.