In animation and comics, the viewer breezes past the drawings. But with picture books, each page is going to be stared at and touched and read over and over. Maybe even chewed on a little. Everything needs to be thoughtful and economical, thirty-two little masterpieces.

I'm fortunate enough to get to make books for a living, so I spend my entire workday alone in my studio quietly doing my favorite thing in the world. When I need a break from that, it's usually because I'm desperate to see other human beings again!

Animation taught me to draw quickly and clearly and to communicate a character's feelings through his or her body language and facial expressions.

Why can't I just Google it like everything else?! I hate you public library system!

Knitting is repetitive, rewarding, and calms me down like a warm bath. But it takes up juuuust enough brainspace that I can't come up with ideas. Which is too bad, because I love multitasking.

In animation and comics, the viewer breezes past the drawings. But with picture books, each page is going to be stared at and touched and read over and over. Maybe even chewed on a little. Everything needs to be thoughtful and economical, thirty-two little masterpieces.

I think sometimes older people wind up being a little childlike. They've done their time, now they get to do what they want.