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.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I never wrote for children. I wrote with respect for the audience, which I've maintained all my life. Doesn't mean I couldn't be risque, but I did it smartly, without being vulgar.
It seems to me that not only the writing in most children's books condescends to kids, but so does the art. I don't want to do that.
When I began writing, I didn't read any other children's poets... I didn't want to be influenced until I'd found my own voice. Now I read them all.
I have written, probably, more books for children than any other writer, from story-books to plays, and can claim to know more about interesting children than most.
I think that usually the risk in trying to write children in fiction is the tendency to make them too cute or something.
Writing for children isn't easy. Kids will abandon a story that doesn't interest, enchant, delight, thrill, or terrify them. But when you can find a way into a young reader's imagination through something as simple as words on paper, well, there's nothing more satisfying.
Writing for children is an art in itself, and a most interesting one.
We write not only for children but also for their parents. They, too, are serious children.
I always love writing about children.
I've always been interested in a certain kind of sophistication in children's literature. I loved Roald Dahl; I loved the underlying nastiness of some of his - darkness of his tales.