And the walls became the world all around.

Truthfullness to life-both fantasy life and factual life-is the basis of all great art.

I wanted to be acknowledged as an artist, not just some kiddie-book artist.

All I liked to do when I was a kid was draw. My childhood was like my adult life: drawing pictures with my brother, putting the comics up on the glass window, and tracing the characters onto tracing paper or drawing paper and then coloring them. That and making things was all we ever did.

That's what art is. You don't make up stories. You live your life.

I never set out to write books for children. I don't have a feeling that I'm gonna save children or my life is devoted.

If I have an unusual gift, it's not that I draw particularly better than other people - I've never fooled myself about that. Rather it's that I remember things other people don't recall: the sounds and feelings and images - the emotional quality - of particular moments in childhood. Happily an essential part of myself - my dreaming life - still lives in the light of childhood.