--- title: xkcd: 10 Questions with Randall Munroe description: The former NASA roboticist and author of the web comic xkcd has a new book called Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words canonical: https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/ author: Lev Grossman article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-19T19:39:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-09T08:19:50.417Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 7 Questions With Randall Munroe og:description: The cartoonist draws his own conclusions og:url: https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c1716ef90a7dabb/698871f52dce0149b49e6966/munroe-facebook.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: munroe-facebook og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 Questions With Randall Munroe twitter:description: The cartoonist draws his own conclusions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c1716ef90a7dabb/698871f52dce0149b49e6966/munroe-facebook.jpg?branch=production ---  # Randall Munroe Draws His Own Conclusions by [Lev Grossman](https://time.com/author/lev-grossman/) ## Lev Grossman Nov 19, 2015 7:39 PM UTC by [Lev Grossman](https://time.com/author/lev-grossman/) ## Lev Grossman Nov 19, 2015 7:39 PM UTC **Some of the** [**xkcd**](http://xkcd.com/) **comics aren’t just funny and interesting; they’re very moving. They deal with deep themes like time and death. Do you think of xkcd as art?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME **You can’t be an expert on absolutely everything. How do you figure out the complicated things you explain so that you can explain them?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME **Your first book,** [**_What If?_**](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544272994/?tag=timecom-20)**, explored the realistic outcomes of some exotic hypothetical situations. What was the most appalling hypothetical** **reality you wound up with?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME **Your new book,** [**_Thing Explainer_**](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0544668251/?tag=timecom-20)**, explains things using only the thousand most common words in the English language. Did you come across anything you couldn’t explain using those words?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME **What is your favorite geological period? Numerical prefix? Animal phylum?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME **Have you always drawn stick figures? Can you draw non-stick-figure people too?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME **What do you do when you’re not drawing xkcd?**  Randall Munroe Randall Munroe for TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/"},"headline":"Randall Munroe Draws His Own Conclusions","datePublished":"2015-11-19T19:39:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T08:19:50.417Z","description":"The former NASA roboticist and author of the web comic xkcd has a new book called Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words","url":"https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/","keywords":["Books","10 Questions"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c1716ef90a7dabb/698871f52dce0149b49e6966/munroe-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lev Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lev-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c1716ef90a7dabb/698871f52dce0149b49e6966/munroe-facebook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"munroe-facebook","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4116921/randall-munroe-draws-his-own-conclusions/","name":"Randall Munroe Draws His Own Conclusions"}}]}] ```