Jan Brett Quotes

#1. 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

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

Jan Brett

#3. 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

#4. But I also think that it does create a lot of revenue, but to me it's a temporary revenue stream because it's an industry that, if suddenly gambling started in Massachusetts, then a lot of our patrons who would gamble in New Hampshire if we had it, would disappear.

Craig Benson

#5. 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

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

Jan Brett

#7. It's been so long since I've been okay, I don't know what it feels like anymore.

Joelle Charbonneau

#8. The theory of dependence will take the wrong path and lead to deception if the analysis is not put within the framework of the worldwide class struggle.

Gustavo Gutierrez

#9. 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

#10. 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

#11. What I find most interesting is how people really have taken Linux and used it in ways and attributes and motivations that I never felt.

Linus Torvalds

#12. 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

#13. They've taken the foot off Johnny Grubb. Uh, they've taken the shoe off Johnny Grubb.

Jerry Coleman

#14. 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

#15. 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

#16. 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

#17. Universities can teach maturity. They can teach teenagers how to be adults, and that means to function outside a clique or a tribe.

Russell Smith

#18. 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

#19. 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

#20. We were ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness of God .

Saint Augustine

#21. To live a life that is wrong for you is a form of dying. There are people who have lives that look perfect. They try to be happy, they believe they should be happy, they are trying to like it, but if it's off course from their north star, they aren't satisfied.

Martha Beck

#22. I give them the head, choke them, hit them in the balls.You'rehting, not playing the piano, you know

Fritzie Zivic

#23. It was only later on that I became more interested in older music.

Elliott Carter

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

Jan Brett

#25. 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

#26. One of your biggest lessons so far in life has been to learn to forgive myself over and over again and not to be so harsh with myself.

Krishna Das

#27. 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

#28. 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

#29. 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

#30. 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

#31. Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it.

P.T. Barnum

#32. 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

#33. 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

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

Jan Brett

#35. 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

#36. We are often so convinced that we are so hurt and in pain, so much so that we opt not to forgive. Yet, as a consequence, that is what will make you weak!

Stephen Richards

#37. 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

#38. I'd been living luminously between two eternities of darknness.

Ohran Pamuk