Dick Bruna

Right at the beginning, I didn't know if Miffy was a boy or girl. ”

I did about 2000 covers altogether, for all sorts of books - from Shakespeare to James Bond - and I always had the idea that I must give 100%, no matter who the author was. ”

I have been drawing all my life. ”

I come from a family of business people, but I had the idea I wanted to become an artist. ”

My father realised that for me to become a publisher in his firm would have been the end of the firm! ”

But we discovered that, although I liked publishing, the commercial side meant nothing at all to me. ”

But I don't sit down and think: this is meant for children. ”

When I make a book, I make it for the child and not for the parent - no jokes in it for the parents! ”

Then one day I thought it would be wonderful to make a whole book, to make my text and my drawings together, and that's how I started doing children's books. ”

Miffy has changed quite a lot since the early books, although I never realised it at the time. ”