I don't know how to write a children's book.

I want to see me to the end working, living for myself. Ripeness is all.

I write books that seem more suitable for children, and that's OK with me. They are a better audience and tougher critics. Kids tell you what they think, not what they think they should think.

I'm totally crazy, I know that. I don't say that to be a smartass, but I know that that's the very essence of what makes my work good. And I know my work is good. Not everybody likes it, that's fine. I don't do it for everybody. Or anybody. I do it because I can't not do it.

I mean, being a child was being a child, was being a creature without power, without pocket money, without escape routes of any kind. So I didn't want to be a child.

I know there are supposedly happy people in this world. I never believed it, but I take it for granted. God knows, they're all on television.

And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.