Mac Barnett Quotes

#1. It's a sort of patronizing idea that literature for children has to feature role models of exemplary behavior. I think not only is that bogus, but it leads to really boring books.

Mac Barnett

#2. Danger is the snack food of a true sleuth.

Mac Barnett

#3. I'm not sure we're presenting ourselves as real role models. I don't think literature has ever been a real place for role models.

Mac Barnett

#4. I'd much rather have a book that a few people love intensely than a book that a lot of people like okay.

Mac Barnett

#5. Dana was what Steve called a "silent partner" in the Brixton Brothers Detective Agency. Being a silent partner meant that Dana didn't carry a business card, that his name didn't appear on the company letterhead, and he wanted nothing to do with the Brixton Brothers Detective Agency.

Mac Barnett

#6. Too often we tell kids pleasant stories devoid of truth, and stories without truth are not good stories. Our audience deserves more from us.

Mac Barnett

#7. This was so unfunny, Steve had to laugh.

Mac Barnett

#8. Every Librarian is a highly trained agent. An expert in intelligence, counterintelligence, Boolean searching, and hand-to-hand combat.

Mac Barnett

#9. A clue! From M!"
"Who's M?"
"Maybe M is for Mackintosh! Maybe Grabes ans Mackintosh are in cahoots!"
"Or maybe M is for Mom. Also, who says 'cahoots'?

Mac Barnett

#10. I read The Stinky Cheese Man as an adult. I missed that book when I was a kid. I grew up mostly with books bought at yard sales, picture books from the fifties to 1975, which is really a lucky thing.

Mac Barnett

#11. Kevin Cornell and I have worked together a bunch.

Mac Barnett

#12. I love those adult writers with the pranking ethos, [Don] DeLillo and [Donald] Barthelme and David Foster Wallace. I don't see any reason not to bring those kinds of influences to bear on books for children.

Mac Barnett

#13. I think the trick of writing a good picture book manuscript is to leave that space for illustration. An illustrated novel can do the same thing.

Mac Barnett

#14. Pranking exposes the truth that underneath this appearance of order is joy, laughter, and disorder.

Mac Barnett

#15. We put authors on such a pedestal, and it's a moment that humanizes the whole thing, and lends an absurdity to what otherwise is a "please sit with your hands on your lap" kind of event.

Mac Barnett

#16. Dear Mom,
I won't be home this weekend because I'm wanted for treason and I have to clear my name. Also, I took the last Sprite from the fridge.
Love, Steve

Mac Barnett

#17. Pranking is a great way to indicate the underlying absurdities of the world.

Mac Barnett

#18. Not only is a good prank harmless, but, like a good story, it reveals an essential truth that would otherwise be hidden.

Mac Barnett