I didn’t think about it before, but lately having kids I think about why I did what I did in my books. And I think it’s all to do with not just leaving home, but not being able to go back. And that feeling of leaving one continent, coming to another, being in the new world, and trying to feel how other people felt before when they did something similar
It had to do a lot with what I was experiencing.
Even with the animals, it was always a lonely animal, if it was Rainbow Rhinoceros, or the whale, which doesn’t fit anywhere. So I was feeling like I’m trying to find my way to fit in, which was really hard because would I have worked for the bank, I would see people every day.
But if you’re an illustrator, you sit home most of the time. On top of it, I had a very time-consuming style which I invented in order to be very special, but it completely killed any free time, or any weekends. I think I’m sort of very lucky that I even found my wife!
