The interesting thing about writing first-person gorilla is that you are doing this weird thing where you’re writing — you’re always anthropomorphizing when you write an animal fantasy. And because I love research, and I love the science behind — in my heart I really wish I could grow up to be Jane Goodall, but apparently they have no Starbucks in the jungle, so.
I loved doing the research on Ivan, the actual Ivan, and then on gorillas generally, Western lowland gorillas in particular. But then I realized I’m sitting here creating an animal who is communicating with humans using crayons and who is having fascinating conversations with a dog, and it’s an uncomfortable juxtaposition. I tried to stay as close as I could to how a gorilla might feel, and yet I wanted to give him a personality that was clearly going to have some human elements.
So it’s always a fine line.