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.

I do like to be surprised.

I had read [Charles] Dickens's novels were often published serially. I thought it would be fun to write a book, just sitting down and writing a chapter every day, not knowing what would happen next. So that's how I wrote the first draft. And then of course I had to go back and make sure everything worked and change things.

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

I don't feel like it's something I invented myself, rather something I absorbed and continue to do.

The morning time is also a time when I look at what I did yesterday. That's often a jumping-off point for today.

It would look like a notebook with dividers, and there'd be different subjects and things [preschoolers] could do, so that they could feel like they were going to school also.