Listen to me: If you want to be terrific, don’t take the advice of all those assholes who don’t know shit. You gotta not only do great work, you gotta be a good person. And in order to do innovative, exciting, dramatic work that is unusual — in any field — you have to be courageous. When I did those Esquire covers that are in the Museum of Modern Art, I didn’t need the courage to do the work. I did these very iconic covers that were shocking, but I didn’t need balls. The editor needed balls to say, “Hey, Lois knows what he’s doing. I love his covers.” I’m saying, use your head. Think things through. You gotta be proud of yourself. You gotta believe in something. You can’t live a bullshit life.