I have to write what I can write, and writing the text of a picture book is like walking a tightrope, if you ramble off... As my friend Julius Lester says, A picture book is the essence of an experience.

Life is made up of circles ... Life is not a straight line ... And sometimes we circle back to a past time. But we are not the same. We are changed forever.

Sometimes poetry--words--give us a small, lovely look at ourselves. And sometimes that is enough.

All the world can be found in poetry. All you need to see and hear. All the moments, good and bad, joyous and sad.

I love to talk to children about making mistakes. Its important that I tell them about how I dont get it right the first time. We live in such a perfectionist society, and they see so many finished products and polished performances.

I never work from an outline, and often I dont know how the story will end.

Im working on a bunch of things with my daughter Emily. In some ways, shes a smarter and better editor than I am.