I always say, 'Books beat boredom,' said Amanda wisely.

An artist is waiting for the audience to understand the work. A craftsman is working to understand the audience.

My favorite book is my next one. I’m always hoping to make my next book my best one.

I also learn a lot about everybody else's process. People create in different ways, so that has opened me up to different processes and experimenting. Laurie Keller is a character person, so she came to the project with these blades-of-grass characters that we were able to literally grow a story around.

When you make a decision, you don't have to be locked into it. One of the ways that you grow is by starting over.

The first bowl of chocolate pudding was too hot, but Goldilocks ate it all anyway because, hey, it's chocolate pudding, right?

Elephant and Piggie could just Google themselves! With the Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! series, we're picking artists who have a voice already. They have a sensibility. I don't want to make a book about blades of grass. That doesn't interest me. I want to make a book that Laurie Keller uses to express herself in this format. That's the key. That's what's going to keep it individual.