I think it is the fact that birds are two-legged, like us, which gives them something of our balance and gesture and makes them nearer to us. – Quentin Blake
I love the sea, but I avoid any sort of seaside resort that has skyscrapers or seaside entertainments. – Quentin Blake
I suppose illustration tends to live in the streets, rather than in the hermetically sealed atmosphere of the museum, and consequently it has come to be taken less seriously. – Quentin Blake
I know some children’s writers write for specific children, or for the children they once were, but I never have. I just thought children might like my sort of visual humour. – Quentin Blake
I think it is important for children to read different things to find out about their emotions and other people’s emotions. It is an enormous source of education and culture. – Quentin Blake
I’ve never quite worked out how to do holidays. I’ve got a house in France which I suppose is a kind of holiday house. But it’s really only so I can go on drawing when I get there. I’m never far away from the feeling that I want to be getting on with something. – Quentin Blake
Inspiration is some mysterious blessing which happens when the wheels are turning smoothly. – Quentin Blake
I don’t have anything interesting to conceal or reveal in my private life, and it is really only my work and professional life that I want to talk about. – Quentin Blake
With my pictures, what I hope is that it encourages the reader to imagine more pictures of his own. – Quentin Blake
Television is kind of a disappointment. I often want to watch it, but I find it quite hard – I don’t like soaps, reality TV or celebrity chefs. – Quentin Blake
I don’t like leaving work behind. I hate the idea that something might be happening on the drawing board at home that I am going to miss. – Quentin Blake
Sometimes people think drawing and painting is mucking about when actually it is a highly skilled activity. – Quentin Blake
I don’t think there’s an illustrator who’s as good as a Titian or a Rembrandt… but then, Rembrandt was a bit of an illustrator on the quiet, you know? – Quentin Blake
As an illustrator you need to understand the human body – but having looked at and understood nature, you must develop an ability to look away and capture the balance between what you’ve seen and what you imagine. – Quentin Blake
Well, one always has an instinct to be a painter, and I’ve done quite a lot of painting at one time or another, though not with any public success. – Quentin Blake