Alex Hirsch
Gravity Falls' is a riddle wrapped in an enigma tucked in a mystery deep-fried in a conundrum slathered in hickory-smoked puzzle sauce.
As a kid, I was obsessed with 'Calvin and Hobbes' and 'Bone,' and I'm certain that I've unconsciously ripped off ideas from both, wholesale.
To see where I've stolen all my ideas from, look no further than the comics at your local comic shop!
I was obsessed with the Loch Ness Monster, I would look through these books in the library and dream about visiting Loch Ness one day... That stuff was really kind of what I loved as a kid.
When I was a kid, back in the days before cell phone cameras, I had disposable cameras I took a lot of pictures with and I just remember something always went wrong.
A lot of kid characters you see on TV are sassy, and snarky, and think they're just the coolest kids in the world, and are mean spirited.
One of the nice things about not working on a TV show anymore is that I'm not on any particular kind of clock.
I will say this: 'Gravity Falls' is a show about mystery, that itch you get when you're curious. That itself is a really cool, inspiring thing.
I think twins can sometimes be shoved into the same mold and they can start to feel like they're not being given a chance to develop their own identities.
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with UFOs in particular, and the paranormal.
A sibling is a friend for life, but they are a friend for life that you are forced to have. And like anything that you are forced to do, occasionally people will drive you crazy.
Everyone has days where they don't get their way, where you have to go to bed early or you have too much homework to do or you can't eat the candy that you want or you miss your favorite TV show and, in those moments, you just want to tear the whole world down.
Gravity Falls' is a show about mysteries and magic but first and foremost it's a show about characters.
Cliffhangers are a lot of fun, but I think they can be easily abused if you're not careful.
I remember as a kid being scared of the things that go bump in the night, but I was way more scared of adults.
When I was 12 years old, I was obsessed with codes, conspiracies, and secret messages.
When you write scripts, it begins to feel like you're living in them.
We passed a sign for Boring, Oregon. We never went there, but I was positively enchanted with the idea that there was a town called Boring. 'Gravity Falls' is partially from what I imagine Boring might be like. Or maybe the opposite of Boring, Oregon, would be 'Gravity Falls.'
I personally went canvassing door to door in a local race when I was in high school and thought it was kind of hilarious how worked up people got over such small stakes elections.
Animation's a small industry, and no matter where you go you're going to meet your friends from CalArts.
My mom is always right.
I spent many years of my childhood pondering the great mysteries like, 'Are aliens real?' and 'Why won't girls talk to me?'
When I was 15 I did birdcalls on the David Letterman show, but I have since burned all video evidence of this.
I feel like the best kids shows aren't just for kids.
I always designed 'Gravity Falls' to be a finite series about one epic summer-a series with a beginning, middle, and end.
There are so many shows that go on endlessly until they lose their original spark, or mysteries that are cancelled before they ever get a chance to payoff.
When you're drawing from observation and experience, whether you intend to or not, you'll create a more relatable cartoon.
I tended toward animated material that wasn't just for kids. I could tell as a kid watching those shows that I loved the jokes that I got but I also loved the jokes I didn't get because I felt that I was hanging out with a smarter, cooler audience.
I think good kids TV has got to have layers. It has to have compelling characters that everyone loves, but you can't dumb it down.
Not a lot of people get to say, 'I'm a cartoon character.'
With the finale episode of 'Gravity Falls' our job as storytellers is to finish all the things we've started.
I feel like I've widened the interest in the automotive world.
I work all the time and find it hard to switch off.
I speak in relatable terms, without too much car lingo, so more and more people can engage with the car world. And I'm not afraid to ask questions on behalf of a whole community of people who want to learn but are afraid they'll be shut down.
It's unfortunate when I see brands spending a lot of time and money on creating online content that hardly anyone watches.
I always wanted to at least visit Dubai - it was a city that I loved to watch on the Discovery Channel. It had the world's biggest everything and clearly had a vision to stand out.
I was just always into nice cars and the experience that goes along with them.
I've driven Ferrari 488 GTB, the 488 Spider, the Mclaren 570s and 540c, the Bentley GT3R, GT Speed and V8s, Mercedes AMG GTs, Lamborghini Huracan, and many others.
I've always loved driving, even when I was driving my very first car - a Mitsubishi Lancer.
In Dubai, we spend too much of our lives in cars; we shouldn't be wasting it in something boring, but rather enjoy every minute in something we love and appreciate.
When people laugh at social media it's because they don't understand how much work is involved. It's like creating any kind of content.
I've driven cars worth $6 million and now I'm not as nervous because I do it a lot, but I have to keep my wits about me because if I touch anything or scrape one rim, anything could go wrong.
Only one per cent of the world actually care about the full-on technical specs of a car. Most people want to know how cool it looks, what gadgets it has, what the buttons do, what it's like to drive and what it sounds like.
I think Ferraris should always have roses in them, it looks amazing.
The general population isn't interested in the nitty-gritty of cars.
I want to try to have as many people as possible interested in my content, so it needs to go across language barriers.
What people are going to see on my platform is cars from a different perspective - so that I'm still speaking the same language to the general public. I don't ever want to get too technical.
A lot of celebrities love cars, and because they have the money, they get involved in the car world.
I used to cover track events for my radio show, and one day, as a thank you gesture, Bentley called me asked me whether I would like to test drive the Flying Spur. I was in dreamland.