ANTHONY BROWNE

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

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

Children will come out and listen to a writer whose books they like. They don't need a government agency or a medal that says 'laureate' to continue that.

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

Stories come to me and I don't know where they come from, but afterwards I can look back and say, 'Oh yes, that's got a little bit of me, or a little bit of my own son in it'. That's where ideas come from.

Most of the day I work standing up, as I once read somewhere that it's the best position for the back.

I see 'Hansel and Gretel' as a breakthrough book for me, and one of the reasons is because I started to apply meaning to the hidden details.

Writers are articulate. Artists find it more difficult.

One of my main decisions when accepting the job of Children's Laureate was that I must continue working on picture books. If I don't write and illustrate for some time, then I begin to question who I am.

From 17 to 21, I was obsessed by sport and art. In art, I loved the pre-Raphaelites and Rembrandt first. Then I discovered Salvador Dali, and it was like finding something I already knew.

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.

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

I use a little brush only for really small details. Over the years, I've started to use a much larger brush.

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.

As adults, we've seen so much before that we often turn the pages of a picture book without really looking. Young children tend to look more carefully.

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.

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.

Something happens to our creativity as we go through the education process; most of us lose touch with it.

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.

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.

Worrying can be a kind of caring, and as such is a healthy part of a balanced emotional life.

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.

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

Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader's imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book.

I find it incredible and outrageous that public and school libraries are being forced to close - we'll all pay the price in the long term.