William Joyce has embraced his mischievous tendencies, and openly admits that he’s on the side of the kids.
I’ve always liked getting away with just a little bit of what you’re not supposed to. Like my first book, Billy’s Booger, got me in trouble with the principal’s office. It was an interesting thing because the teachers got upset and the principal got upset, but everybody in the class thought it was great. So to me it kind of just turned an interesting little knob in my brain. It was like, all I did was draw some pictures of a booger and write fiction about these boogers’ adventures. And I managed to endear myself to all my classmates, but drive the grownups crazy. And that was interesting to me. I liked that and so I’ve continued that tradition or whatever you want to call it in my work. I like stirring things up. I’m on the side of the kids more than I am on the adults. And occasionally I find some adults that have that same mischievous streak, so I don’t get in too much trouble.
