All old people say, 'Old age is not for sissies.'
And I'm a bit of a sissy,
so I don't want to be tested really.
If we go and visit friends,
all the grown ups go and sit in the lounge
and I like to hang around with the children.
I find them more interesting.
I find children far more interesting than adults.
They still occupy a space in another world.
One foot in the world of imagination
and another foot in real life.
So scissors can all of a sudden
become a space craft or an aeroplane.
We see children doing this. They're not nuts.
They just have an imagination that transforms
the ordinary into the extraordinary.
You either retain something of your childhood
or you leave it behind.
I didn't give up on the child that I am,
and having an imagination.
I do have a good life.
And what makes it good is that
I have family, I have great friends.
I didn't always have a good life.
And that's why, now that it is good,
I don't feel guilty about it at all.
I had a miserable childhood.
I haven't told you that, have I?
No. Miserable.
My father was an alcoholic.
And anyone who has a parent who is alcoholic
knows that it doesn't bring happiness to a family.
The sadness is there, and
it might even be part of
why I do children's books.
As a way of healing.
And writing stories where there is
far more kindness in the stories
than there was in my own life.
Be kind.
Because we can all be kind.
Kindness doesn't cost a thing.
Just be kind.
I'm very positive.
Almost sort of suspiciously positive.
But I have no place for negativity
because I've had so much of that in my life
and I know that it doesn't add up to anything.
Positivity brings other positive people into your life.
And when you have that, you're really OK.
Even if bad things happen
you've got the support of positive people around you.
I am trying to be retired.
If there isn't another book stirring inside of me
that is not happy with me retiring
that is sort of going to worm its way through.
I don't think artists do retire.
I like to think that when I'm on my death bed
I'll still be doing a little doodle on the side
because, in a way, it's so in my blood.
That's what makes us different...
makes us artists.
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