My dog was with me all the time. I talked to my dog. She was my best buddy. I shared all my secrets with her, but I don't think I every really tried jokes out with the dog.

My mother had always taught me to write about my feelings instead of sharing really personal things with others, so I spent many evenings writing in my diary, eating everything in the kitchen and waiting for Mr. Wrong to call.

Food, love, career, and mothers, the four major guilt groups.

Defy your own group. Rebel against yourself.

Every time I get something under control in my own life, the world provides more material.

All parents believe their children can do the impossible. They thought it the minute we were born, and no matter how hard we've tried to prove them wrong, they all think it about us now. And the really annoying thing is, they're probably right.

Because the majority of my readers are women, I feel that one public service I can provide to them is to spread the message of regular mammograms and early detection within the strip.

The biggest change in my life is that I now have to apologize for being thin.

I'm lucky that my real-life Mom has both a great sense of humor about herself and an amazing ability to slip into complete denial if the subject matter gets a little too close to home.

I'm married, which means that instead of occasionally wondering about men from afar, I actually live with one and can be constantly astounded by the strange male brain.

Animal welfare issues have always been important to me.

I never thought Cathy would get married in the comic strip. And I also thought I would never get married.

I'd love to see more equal representation of female and male cartoonists on the comics page.

I'm more financially successful, but it just means the shopping blunders I make are bigger now.

I'm most proud of having created something that men never completely get.

In 1976 I wrote a lot about women trying to claim the right to work.

Otherwise, my whole career has just been flinging myself at whatever is most overdue first and letting everything else stack up.

The relationship between Cathy and Mom in the strip is the one relationship drawn from real life that I have proudly never even tried to disguise.

The specific story line that people have responded to the most has been the horror of bathing suit shopping.

The specifics of Cathy?s and my life are different now, but the basic life challenges are exactly the same.