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.

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.

“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity” 

“Wise men talk because they have something to say; Fools, because they have to say something.” 

“Time is the moving image of reality” 

“The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.” 

“Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash value.” 

“Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being” 

“Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes.” 

“You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken....Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?

We cannot....Anything received into the mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts....” 

“Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.” 

“Man...is a tame or civilized animal; never the less, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill- educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.” 

“Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.” 

“The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.” 

“If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder. And it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples, but only its semblance, for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much, while for the most part they know nothing, and as men filled, not with wisdom, but with the conceit of wisdom, they will be a burden to their fellows.” 

“Knowledge is the food of the soul.” 

“...when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images of virtue (because he's in touch with no images), but to true virtue [arete] (because he is in touch with true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.” 

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life” 

“Philosophy is the highest music.” 

“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.” 

“Ideas are the source of all things” 

I don't feel as if I belong to an age group.

A lot of my travel is at least partly work, visiting schools and libraries, especially in France.

I love the sea, but I avoid any sort of seaside resort that has skyscrapers or seaside entertainments.

The hateful thing about most hotels nowadays is that they only have duvets. I hate duvets.

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.

Sometimes I think people get into trouble because they can't say what they want to.

Sometimes people think drawing and painting is mucking about when actually it is a highly skilled activity.

If you want to read and you want to draw, that helps you to express yourself.

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.

With my pictures, what I hope is that it encourages the reader to imagine more pictures of his own.

Inspiration is some mysterious blessing which happens when the wheels are turning smoothly.

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.

“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.” 

“What a strange thing that which men call pleasure seems to be, and how astonishing the relation it has with what is thought to be its opposite, namely pain! A man cannot have both at the same time. Yet if he pursues and catches the one, he is almost always bound to catch the other also, like two creatures with one head.” 

“And Agathon said, It is probable, Socrates, that I knew nothing of what I had said.

And yet spoke you beautifully, Agathon, he said.” 

“And I understood then that I was a fool when I told you I would take my turn in singing the honours of Love, and admitted I was terribly clever in love affairs, whereas it seems I really had no idea how a eulogy ought to be made. For I was stupid enough to think that we ought to speak the truth about each person eulogised, and to make this the foundation, and from these truths to choose the most beautiful things and arrange them in the most elegant way; and I was quite proud to think how well I should speak, because I believed that I knew the truth.” 

“No matter how hard you fight the darkness, every light casts a shadow, and the closer you get to the light, the darker that shadow becomes.” 

“And isn't it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.” 

“Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.” 

“A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognise that the same thing happens to the soul.” 

“If it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.” 

“The media only writes about the sinners and the scandals, he said, but that's normal, because 'a tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows.” 

“I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security.” 

“No one can grow if he does not accept his smallness.” 

“God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” 

“It is not 'progressive' to try to resolve problems by eliminating a human life.” 

“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure but it is news when the stock market loses two points?”