Children seem naturally drawn to poetry - it's some combination of the rhyme, rhythm, and the words themselves.

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

I'm working now on a collection of Shakespearean sonnets, about 100 of them, that I may publish if anyone's interested. My take on life is a little different from the bard's.

His blood is black and boiling hot, he gurgles ghastly groans. He'll cook you in his dinner pot, your skin, your flesh, your bones.

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.

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 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.