Jan Brett Quotes

#1. I always feel like my book is a success when I see a child reading it, and they have their pointer finger out, and they kind of keep their place as they look all around the page. I've always been impressed by how children are so observant.

Jan Brett

#2. I've found places that are just as beautiful as New England, but this is my home.

Jan Brett

#3. The books take a year just to do the drawing. I will travel to a country to do the research and get ideas. Sometimes I don't travel to do research, but mostly I do. It takes a long time, but do I ever get tired of it? Not really. The characters kind of grow and evolve.

Jan Brett

#4. Children have such vibrant minds. They need to play. They need to be creative. They need to imagine. It's so important for their sense of self discovery. And it helps them learn problem-solving.

Jan Brett

#5. Writing a story is like going down a path in the woods. You follow the path. You don't worry about getting lost. You just go.

Jan Brett

#6. When I was little, I would close my eyes and put my finger on a page. Then in my mind, I would go to that place.

Jan Brett

#7. I love children because that's a part of my life that was so happy, and I like to remember back to those days where everything is a discovery, and the world is so fresh.

Jan Brett

#8. Sometimes I get ideas from childhood. In 'The Hat', Hedgie starts getting teased about his hat, and he just pretends that everything is okay. That's the advice that my mother gave me - not to get mad and pretend that everything is okay. And it worked.

Jan Brett

#9. Imagination - that's the future for us.

Jan Brett

#10. People may think that because I have illustrated and written all these books it must be easy for me, but it's not really easy for me. The drawing part is easy - I love doing it. But continuing to move forward is hard.

Jan Brett

#11. I just love to draw. It's very intense for me. The day will just go by like the snap of a finger. A lot of times I'll draw or paint late into the night. When I am really concentrating, I kind of lose track of what I am doing.

Jan Brett

#12. Teachers have to respect the privacy of students' creative life, but at the same time give them a chance to express themselves.

Jan Brett

#13. A children's book is the perfect place where young readers can understand the world because they can take a deep breath and look at it and imagine and contemplate while they're looking at.

Jan Brett

#14. I have a hard time writing, and I usually have to put a timer at my desk and put it on for an hour. But I love to illustrate, and I can hardly stop myself.

Jan Brett

#15. One of my favorite books is 'Armadillo Rodeo', and I got the idea from traveling to Texas and seeing armadillos.

Jan Brett

#16. When I go to another country, I try to be a big sponge and look at what the houses may look like and what colors predominate. I do not do research as much as just get ideas and ask people about things.

Jan Brett

#17. When I was little I used to wish I could talk to the illustrators because I wanted to discuss something about the books. With so many of the other art forms that children experience, such as movies and television, they don't get to control the pace.

Jan Brett

#18. My parents would tell us to go outside and play or to do creative stuff, but television was very limited. So we used our own creativity to entertain ourselves. We were out in the woods a lot making huts and playing horses.

Jan Brett

#19. I remember kids used to give me a penny for drawing them a horse. I loved horses, but I couldn't have one, so I would draw a horse for myself. I would make it food and a blanket for it to wear and a place to live.

Jan Brett

#20. When I was little, I loved books that gave me lots of detail so that I felt like I could be transported to this other place, or, in the case of an illustration, I felt like I could walk into the page.

Jan Brett

#21. My optimism has helped me through some hard times. If you try to send out good things, good things come back to you.

Jan Brett

#22. I loved being a child. If I do have a talent, it's not so much being an artist, but it's being able to remember back to that time.

Jan Brett

#23. I like to pretend that each book is my first one and last one, because it takes a tremendous amount of energy to do a book.

Jan Brett

#24. Of all people, children are the ones that really understand when there's a truth there for them - an emotional truth. The characters really have to work. Children, as an audience, are very inspirational for me.

Jan Brett