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

I think Laurie's Keller story 'We are growing', resonates because when you have that amount of independence, you're starting to ask yourself questions that the grownups in your life have been answering for you. Before that, you are a good kid, or you are a funny kid, because you're told that's who you are. But when it's just you and the book, you have to figure out who you are.

Kids are super-independent. This is the time when you don't need your parents for a story anymore. You have a great degree of agency and independence.

All of the life-changing awesome words and pictures and ideas inside your library are useless without just one word outside your library: Open.

Elephant and Piggie have a very large input. They have a distinct aesthetic taste. They like books that are philosophical. They like books that are dialogue-driven. They like books that are about issues that they live with, in their own elephantine and porcine ways.

If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.

Writing for children is as easy as describing the history of the Byzantium in three words.