A poet is not something you become; a poet is something you are.

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'm usually working on eight or 10 things at once.

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

I always knew would be some sort of artist, but didn't know what.

I've been influenced by poets as diverse as Dylan Thomas, Lewis Carroll, and Edgar Allan Poe.

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