When I began writing, I didn't read any other children's poets... I didn't want to be influenced until I'd found my own voice. Now I read them all.

I invented animals and birds - I had about two dozen. After working on them for six months, I sat down and just for fun wrote two dozen poems to accompany the drawings. It was for no one to every see, but a friend sent me in to an editor.

I write the poems first, with only a few exceptions for odd reasons, where I'm given the illustration first.

My wife used to tell me one of my best qualities was that my feet don't smell, but I remember my brother's did when we were kids.

When I began writing, I didn't read any other children's poets... I didn't want to be influenced until I'd found my own voice. Now I read them all.

I accept challenges, I have always done that in writing.

We all need ways to express ourselves, and poetry is one of mine.