I don't write for children. I write, and somebody says, 'That's for children.'

That always seemed to be the most critical test that a child was confronted with - loss of parents, loss of direction, loss of love. Can you live without a mother and a father?

How do you write for children? I really have never figured that out. So I decided to just ignore it

I think people should be given a test much like driver's tests as to whether they're capable of being parents! It's an art form. I talk a lot. And I think a lot. And I draw a lot. But never in a million years would I have been a parent. That's just work that's too hard.

William Blake really is important, my cornerstone. Nobody ever told me before he did that childhood was such a damned serious business.

There are certain pieces of music that are always attached to certain books.

You know who my gods are, who I believe in fervently? Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson - she's probably the top - Mozart, Shakespeare, Keats. These are wonderful gods who have gotten me through the narrow straits of life.