Of all people, children are the ones that really understand when there's a truth there for them - an emotional truth. The characters really have to work. Children, as an audience, are very inspirational for me.

I would like teachers to look deep because sometimes kids do have a faade that they put up because they feel vulnerable. Their creative truth may not be ready for their friends to see.

I just love to draw. It's very intense for me. The day will just go by like the snap of a finger. A lot of times I'll draw or paint late into the night. When I am really concentrating, I kind of lose track of what I am doing.

I loved being a child. If I do have a talent, it's not so much being an artist, but it's being able to remember back to that time.

I like to pretend that each book is my first one and last one, because it takes a tremendous amount of energy to do a book.

We're going to Surf City, gonna have some fun. Now, two girls for every boy.

The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real.