Looking back, I see that I write books about brothers and sisters, about what makes up a family, what works and what is nurturing.

Being married to a psychologist, I realize that I learn more from imperfections.

I love to talk to children about making mistakes. It's important that I tell them about how I don't get it right the first time. We live in such a perfectionist society, and they see so many finished products and polished performances.

I have to write what I can write, and writing the text of a picture book is like walking a tightrope, if you ramble off... As my friend Julius Lester says, 'A picture book is the essence of an experience.'

It's a sad moment, really, when parents first become a bit frightened of their children.

My own sense of family, where I came from and what I made for myself is an important part of my life.

Pose' feels like a family. I love them all. It's just really beautiful to see everyone else evolve and trying to figure themselves out the same as I am.

I don't think that I could have survived in my family without a naughty sense of humor; yeah, absolutely. I think my brother and I both get our senses of humor from our parents. I mean, my mother was absolutely hilarious and foul. She had the most ridiculously off color sense of humor, so that was sort of what we grew up with.