Maurice Sendak is the daddy of them all when it comes to picture books - the words, the rhythm, the psychology, the design.

Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older.

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

You can never have 'equality' between two things that are not equal by definition. And so, for example, you can have equality among 'people', but not between 'men' and 'women'.

As a boy, I devoured comics but never saw what we now describe as a picture book.

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.

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

I'm impressed by the way some illustrators develop their images on computers, but it's too late for me to start, and I'm still in love with paper and paint and pencils.

After art college, I got a job as a medical illustrator, and I was pretty good. I had to imagine what was going on in the operations because the photographs just showed a mess.

When I was a boy, I was a worrier, and so was my son, Joe. I used to tell him that worrying meant he had an imagination and that one day he'd be pleased.

Inspiring passion in children for books, and the world of imagination and creativity fuelled by them, is a fundamental reason for why the Children's Laureate post exists.

You must be firm in your decisions, to avoid any wind blow.

I don’t care who you love, what you believe, how you look, where you’re from or what you do.If you are a good hearted person, you’re good in my books!

I am pissed off at your insensitive inability to understand why I'm pissed off in the first place.

Our society is obsessed with personal rights, but it will survive only if we adopt personal obligations.

Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

Many filmmakers pretend that they never see anything, which has always seemed odd to me.

Surprise is inherent in the structure of the world.

The media have, indeed, provided the Devil with perhaps the greatest opportunity accorded him since Adam and Eve were turned out of the Garden of Eden.

I just don't see where I could possibly fit in directing a feature.

All the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by books.