By the time I finished the book [All Alone in the Universe], Robin Roy was saying, "More pictures!"

I had a general outline of subjects. The way I start my days is my husband brings me a thermos of coffee up to the bedroom.

There will be scenes in a movie where people are walking through the park, or through a forest, and you're seeing the flickering leaves around them, and they're walking, but you're also hearing their words. It's an interaction between where they are and what they're saying that's both visual and verbal.

I don't think about it that much, but sometimes I am surprised by that. I sometimes wonder why I didn't turn out to be the kind of picture-book writer who has stuffed animals that go with their books. That would be okay with me.

Some of it just involved thinking about, for example, the different kinds of science, what chemistry is.

I made a drawing for a book I'm working . It's a little drawing of a girl who's ashamed and upset and hides in the corner of the closet. It's the kind of drawing that I feel like I'm really good at.

In some ways I'm very structured.