David Small Quotes

If you go back to, say, the Brothers Grimm or Roald Dahl, you see so much darkness in children's material.

If you want to tell grown-up fairy tales, you have to look for the dark side.

A good comic explores the imagination, but it's always got to have those notes of truth running through it.

I think Roald Dahl had the rarest combination of talking to kids about complex emotions, and he was able to show you that the world of kids was sophisticated, complex, and had a lot more darkness than adults ever want to remember.

All you do is to look / At a page in this book / Because that's where we always will be. / No book ever ends / When it's full of your friends / The Giraffe and the Pelly and me.

Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it's got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren't innocent any more.

People think children's books are about teddy bears and little flowers. I realize people sometimes don't know what to do with my books because they say, 'Is it a children's book, and what age group?'

Dark books do appeal to kids because they have nice, sheltered lives - and they also appeal to children who are going through pretty hard times themselves.

My first favourite book was 'Are You My Mother?' A picture book about a lost bird. After that my favourites changed almost yearly. I loved everything by Roald Dahl, but my favourite was probably 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' A librarian gave me a first edition of that book, which I treasure.

Children will often write, 'We love your books because there are no adults in them.'

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

'James and the Giant Peach' magnificently starts out Dahl's career as a blithe and droll Bad Uncle corrupter and affirmer of youth. Its influence can be subsequently traced down the decades in everything from Maurice Sendak to Lemony Snicket to J. K. Rowling.

Writing children's books gives a writer a very strong sense of narrative drive.

I can remember exactly where I sat when my teacher first read Roald Dahl's 'James and the Giant Peach'.

Less Than Zero and American Psycho were both really different, so I was just like, Okay, he's just really doesn't have anything pleasant to say, you know? But I get it. I get at least why it's difficult and what he's really doing.

My kids' books all have a darkness to them.

People often can't separate, or can't understand, that to be funny is to be serious; it's a way of pulling people in and not scaring them off. I think a lot of the funny stuff, underneath it, there's a deep anxiety going on.

I like working on stories where I can explore the darker corners of childhood without illustrations but with humor.

I resisted children's writing for a long time. I saw myself as a writer of literary fiction. But I had so much more fun writing kids' books.

When I was really little, my favorite book was 'The BFG'. I read it - my teacher in, like, first grade read it to us. I love that book.

Irony regards every simple truth as a challenge.

There's a series of children's books called A Series of Unfortunate Events, which is like an incredibly dark version of Roald Dahl. I hope to start directing it.

I grew up with a lot of fairy tales. And they had an essence of darkness to them.

I never write anything without humor, just because I like humor, but at the same time, it is a way for anything fantastical to become relatable.

I've always been attracted to more intense and darker roles, but I think there is complexity and darkness in comedies as well.