Best-Selling Author and Cartoonist Stephan Pastis on His Creative Process: 'I Often Look Down to Make Sure I Have Pants On' The author of the hilarious "Timmy Failure" book series and longtime cartoonist of "Pearls Before Swine" dives deep into his creative process.

Ever get so absorbed in your work that you forget to eat?

That's nothing compared to best-selling author and cartoonist Stephan Pastis who told me, " I kid you not, when I'm coming out of a writing session, when I walk out the front door of the studio, I don't always do it, but I will often look down to make sure I have pants on. That's how lost in my own brain I get."

Pastis's pants-optional procedure is peculiar, but it is productive. (Try saying that five times fast.) The man has written eight books for his hilarious children's series "Timmy Failure," he co-wrote the script for the film adaptation, and at last count,  has written, drawn, and published 41 collections of his Pearls Before Swine comic strip.

I spoke with Pastis for our show How Success Happens, because, well, he's pretty damn successful in two markets that are insanely hard to crack. And while his achievements should give him license to live a my-poop-don't-stink existence, he is down-to-earth, thoughtful, curious and has just the right amount of gleeful madness you want in a comedic genius.

A few things I was delighted to learn during our conversation:

His career is based on a burning desire to quit his career.

" I was a lawyer for 10 years, and I didn't want to be a lawyer. So in the early days, success for me meant making a living by doing cartooning and being able to quit the law. In that, I succeeded."

Creative success is all in your head.

" Rick Rubin wrote the best book I've ever read on creativity. He gives this definition of creative success: When the work you can hear in your head is executed to the best of your ability and you're satisfied with it. When you reach that point, that's it. Everything that happens after that, commercially, critically, whatever, you can't control that. So he shifts that point of success, and I love that. That has sort of been my thing ever since I read that."

Forcing it never works.

"Finding an idea or a joke is kind of like  you're trying to pet a cat in a room. If you run at that cat and say, 'Come here, cat!' that is not gonna work. The muse is like that cat, you have to sit there still in a room, relax, and in her own time, that cat will come to you."

Speed Round!

• Stephan listens to music when he writes — very loudly — and he believes it helps tamp down the logical left side of his brain.
• He semi-stalked legendary Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz at a local ice rink and had a career-altering discussion about cartooning while eating muffins.
• He credits (or discredits) the game Boggle With Friends for wasting an hour a day he could be drawing.