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

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

Frankly, writing poetry for children is plain old fun, and I consider myself blessed to have such a delightful career.

Writing gives me the opportunity to explore ideas, play with language, solve problems, use my imagination, and draw on my own childhood.

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

After I'd produced about two dozen pen and ink drawings, one evening I decided that they needed poems to accompany them. I still have no idea where that notion came from, but it took me about two hours to produce verses for these creatures.

I would go to sketch groups and draw. I really enjoyed the subject matter, but I wasn't good at it.