Anthony Browne

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

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

“I grew up in Yorkshire, and once or twice a year, we'd travel over the Pennines to see my cousins in Cheshire.”

“I played rugby from the age of 10 until my late twenties; an unlikely player - small, quiet, long-haired and 'wiry.'”

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

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

“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 didn't have picture books - there weren't many around when I was a child.”

“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.”