I don't think there's an illustrator who's as good as a Titian or a Rembrandt... but then, Rembrandt was a bit of an illustrator on the quiet, you know?

I know some children's writers write for specific children, or for the children they once were, but I never have. I just thought children might like my sort of visual humour.

I suppose illustration tends to live in the streets, rather than in the hermetically sealed atmosphere of the museum, and consequently it has come to be taken less seriously.

I think it is important for children to read different things to find out about their emotions and other people's emotions. It is an enormous source of education and culture.

I've never quite worked out how to do holidays. I've got a house in France which I suppose is a kind of holiday house. But it's really only so I can go on drawing when I get there. I'm never far away from the feeling that I want to be getting on with something.

A lot of my travel is at least partly work, visiting schools and libraries, especially in France.

Being positive may be a character defect of mine.

Going to hospital is rather like going to an alien planet.

Guinea pigs are quite difficult to draw, I think, because they're so furry.

I do like children, but only as people. Not as if they're a special category.

I don't feel as if I belong to an age group.

I don't like leaving work behind. I hate the idea that something might be happening on the drawing board at home that I am going to miss.

I draw every day - unless I'm being interviewed.

I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it.

I have an assistant who's very good at email, so I don't struggle with it.

I love the sea, but I avoid any sort of seaside resort that has skyscrapers or seaside entertainments.

I think it is the fact that birds are two-legged, like us, which gives them something of our balance and gesture and makes them nearer to us.

I'm trained as a teacher; that's the only thing I've got a certificate for.

If you want to read and you want to draw, that helps you to express yourself.

Inspiration is some mysterious blessing which happens when the wheels are turning smoothly.