I remember when I was working on All Alone in the Universe, and Robin Roy was my editor. When I first sent it to her, she said kids this age don't want pictures in their books.

If I could make a career out of drawing little girls hiding in corners, I would do really well.

I creep over to my chair and sit there with my notebook and my thermos of coffee. It's my best time for thinking, because I haven't started thinking about anything else yet, and the thoughts can kind of go in and out of my head.

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

I know if I did that [career as painter] all the time I would get tired of it.

We had a dog, Lucky, who was fourteen years old. For the last year of his life, I would take him on these walks that were long but didn't cover much distance.

A long time ago, I had an idea to make a book for preschoolers who had older siblings who were going to school.