Anthony Browne Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“My dad never decided what he wanted to do; at times he fought in the army, was a teacher, a boxer, a light engineer, and a then a publican. My mum was a traditional housewife and mother. They showed my brother and I unconditional love.”

“Picture books are being marginalised. I get the feeling children are being pushed away from picture books earlier and earlier and being told to look at 'proper' books, which means books without pictures.”

“The first things I remember drawing were battles - big sheets of paper covered in terrible scenes of carnage - though when you looked closely, there were little jokes and speech bubbles and odd things going on in the background.”

“The illustrations in picture books are the first paintings most children see, and because of that, they are incredibly important. What we see and share at that age stays with us for life.”

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

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

“As a child, I'd always liked cowboys and Indians stories where there were two layers - gruesome in the foreground but funny in the background.”

“Everyone can draw when they're five. Most of us lose the ability.”

“Force me to choose my best book, and I always come back to 'Gorilla.' It was the first time I felt I understood what picture books could do.”

“Having a memoir and a retrospective of your work running almost simultaneously when you're still alive does feel a bit posthumous.”