Miffy has changed quite a lot since the early books, although I never realised it at the time.
I work very long on each book, sometimes two or three months, because I think all the twelve illustrations have to be nice pieces of graphic art.
However, my father was a publisher and it was expected that I would become a publisher as well - in his firm.
Then one day I thought it would be nice to try to draw that rabbit and make a little story of it - and that's how Miffy started.
But I don't sit down and think: this is meant for children.
A few years ago, I had an exhibition at a museum in Holland where, for the very first time, I saw how much Miffy had changed over the years.
Right at the beginning, I didn't know if Miffy was a boy or girl.
Before he went to sleep, I told him a little story about a rabbit we saw run around the beach house we rented.