A lot of people have said Norman is like me and that is definitely true. Norman is the kind of kid who likes to write stories. I was a quiet kid and I loved to sit in my room and make up stories about monsters and zombies.
I wrote about 30 pages when we were working on [director Henry Selick's] Coraline. I showed it to Henry and he said it was good and I should show it to [producer] Travis Knight. He liked it and asked 'where's the rest?'
Although, to be fair, ParaNorman is definitely a result of these movies that made me who I am - they're the movies I grew up with, and that's what ParaNorman is all about. So in a way they are influential on us.