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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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