20th-century Illustrator Quotes

Günter Grass

Tove Jansson

Maurice Sendak

Mervyn Peake

Edward Gorey

William Steig

Russell Hoban

There are hurts so deep that one cannot reach them or heal them with words.

You are all perfectly correct in your implications that we would be safer if we stayed home in our rooms...But we would also be duller, stupider, and, finally, sadder. If you want to avoid danger, don't get born. Once you are born, make something of it!

The Little House was very happy as she sat on the hill and watched the countryside around her. She watched the sun rise in the morning and she watched the sun set in the evening. Day followed day, each one a little different from the one before... but the Little House stayed just the same.

Virginia Lee Burton

Even enlightened despots don't make very good teachers.

The artist's main business is to train his eye to see, then to probe and then to train his hand to work in sympathy with his eye. I have a habit of looking, and really seeing.

Learning history is easy; learning its lessons seems almost impossibly difficult.

Nicolas Bentley

Life is not simple, and therefore history, which is past life, is not simple.

Writers were a strange sort; I knew that much from the newspapers.

Chris Priestley

Part of my passion for all things Christmas is seeing my holiday stuff again every December. I suppose I do have more than most folks, so the reunion each winter keeps me in the holiday spirit for a full year. And there are always a few pieces out in my house whatever the month.

Mary Engelbreit

Everyone needs time to develop their dreams. An egg in the nest doesn't become a bird overnight.

I felt ten years old and a thousand years old, but I didn't know how to be my own age. I had never felt that way before, but now I feel like that a lot.

Lynne Rae Perkins

I couldn't do them if I didn't know horses lived behind them.

Charles Keeping

Everything that I have told you is, of course, a fairy tale. Life is magical, after all. Nothing is safe and everything changes.

Trina Schart Hyman

One winter morning Peter woke up and looked out the window. Snow had fallen during the night. It covered everything as far as he could see.

Ezra Jack Keats

One day I gave Clifford a bath. And I combed his hair and took hom to the dog show. I'd like to say Clifford won first prize...but he didn't. I don't care. You can keep all your small dogs. You can keep all your black, white, brown, and spotted dogs. I'll keep Clifford...Wouldn't you?

Norman Bridwell

There is no line between fine art and illustration; there is no high or low art; there is only art, and it comes in many forms.

Let's stick together." "Well, you're going to have to wait here for me there: I'm going to the bathroom." "But how long are you going to be?" "Oh, three hours?" "Rocky...

An author must learn the principles of good storytelling only in order to write better from the heart.

The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange!

Facts are the barren branches on which we hang the dear, obscuring foliage of our dreams.

Natalie Babbitt

She's my friend, the boy said simply. That's who she is and that's enough for me. As Minli looked at the buffalo boy, aglow with happiness against his poor surroundings, she saw it was enough for him. More than enough, as the smile that kept curling up on his face told her.

When they had eventually calmed down a bit, and had gotten home, Mr. Duncan put the magic pebble in an iron safe. Some day they might want to use it, but really, for now, what more could they wish for? They all had all that they wanted.

That's what History teaches us, I think, that life goes on, even though individuals die and whole civilizations crumble away: The simple things last; they are repeated over and over by each generation.

I find a particular delight in taking the caricature as far as I can. It satisfies me to stretch the human frame about and recreate it and yet keep a likeness.

All the famous people had had an awful time. One of them had a drunken father. Another had a stammer. Another had to wash hundreds of dirty bottles. They had all had what was called a difficult childhood. Clearly you had to have one if you wanted to become famous.