And all the time he was enjoying his badness, hugging it to him as though it were a friend, and not caring a bit.

I think that Mary Poppins needs a subtle reader, in many respects, to grasp all its implications, and I understand that these cannot be translated in terms of the film.

And all the time he was enjoying his badness, hugging it to him as though it were a friend, and not caring a bit.

Child and serpent, star and stone — all one.

I think the idea of Mary Poppins has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life.

I don't think that children, if left to themselves, feel that there is an author behind a book, a somebody who wrote it. Grown-ups have fostered this quotient of identity, particularly teachers. Write a letter to your favorite author and so forth. When I was a child I never realized that there were authors behind books. Books were there as living things, with identities of their own.

For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. I don't look for an answer, because I don't think there is one. I'm very glad to be the bearer of a question.