What is the point of it all? Not leaving legacies. But being ripe. Being ripe.

The day after Paul Newman was dead, he was twice as dead.

The magic of childhood is the strangeness of childhood — the uniqueness that makes us see things that other people don't see.

Illustrations have as much to say as the text. The trick is to say the same thing, but in a different way. It's no good being an illustrator who is saying a lot that is on his or her mind, if it has nothing to do with the text. . . the artist must override the story, but he must also override his own ego for the sake of the story.

I remember my own childhood vividly...I knew terrible things. But I knew I mustn't let adults know I knew. It would scare them

It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.

My sister had her own room. She also had innumerable boyfriends. I had a yo-yo collection that was beyond belief, and the reason I had it was mostly that I would stand in the doorway of the living room watching her and her boyfriend. Finally she caught on how to get this kid out of the way. Give him a yo-yo!