I was sickly as a child and gravitated to books and drawing. During my early teen years, I spent hundreds of hours at my window, sketching neighborhood children at play. I sketched and listened, and those notebooks became the fertile field of my work later on. There is not a book I have written or a picture I have drawn that does not, in some way, owe them its existence.

I'm not jaded. I never have been jaded. I've always been surprised at my success. I've always enjoyed it.

You cannot write for children They're much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.

I do not remember any proper children's books in my childhood. I was not exposed to them.

I never spent less than two years on the text of one of my picture books, even though each of them is approximately 380 words long. Only when the text is finished ... do I begin the pictures.

I think there is something barbaric in children, and it's missing in lots of books for them because we don't like to think of it. We want them to be happy [but] childhood is a very tough time.

There's something in this country that is so opposed to understanding the complexity of children.