I keep a guitar around while writing and will improvise music. I do this for several reasons, such as that it's fun, and sometimes it helps me with the meter.

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

I'm mostly influenced by life, what's around me, and my own childhood.

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

There's not too much difference between writing a picture book and writing a collection of a hundred poems or so, except that the bigger books take a lot longer to do.

Otherwise I don't read much adult poetry at all, because I'm not smart enough and mostly I don't get it.

The BALLPOINT PENGUINS, black and white, Do little else but write and write. Although they've nothing much to say, They write and write it anyway.