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" Gorillas remind me of my father. He was a very big, physically strong man but also very sensitive. "

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" When I talk to children, I show them a typical drawing I made when I was six and point out to them that when I was their age, I didn't draw any better than any of them. "

" Having a memoir and a retrospective of your work running almost simultaneously when you're still alive does feel a bit posthumous. "

" I see 'Hansel and Gretel' as a breakthrough book for me, and one of the reasons is because I started to apply meaning to the hidden details. "

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" The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. What we see and share at that age stays with us for life. "

" The first things I remember drawing were battles - big sheets of paper covered in terrible scenes of carnage - though when you looked closely, there were little jokes and speech bubbles and odd things going on in the background. "

" Never forget that children are at the heart of everything we do. Respect them, listen to them, talk to them as equals, and care about them. "

" M dad was a boxer, so he had this fierce, physical presence. "

" Writers are articulate. Artists find it more difficult. "

" I never want to make a child worried or afraid, and I don't think I do. My pictures are born from the belief that children are far more capable and aware of social complexities than we give them credit for. "

" I had just been promoted to the first rugby team. It was a perfect, wonderful coming of age. My brother was already in the team, and my father had come to watch us. We went home, and my father died in front of me. Horribly, in about half an hour. He had a heart attack. "

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" Stories come to me in mysterious ways, more like dreams than reasoned creations. "

" As adults, we've seen so much before that we often turn the pages of a picture book without really looking. Young children tend to look more carefully. "

" A lot of my characters are underdogs or sad or lonely, but I had a comfortable, golden sort of childhood. "

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" The first thing I put down on paper is a storyboard, like a film director. "

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" Worrying can be a kind of caring, and as such is a healthy part of a balanced emotional life. "

" Everyone can draw when they're five. Most of us lose the ability. "

" Force me to choose my best book, and I always come back to 'Gorilla.' It was the first time I felt I understood what picture books could do. "