Quentin Blake
Quentin Blake
Sir Quentin Saxby Blake, CBE, FCSD, FRSL, RDIis an English cartoonist, illustrator and children's writer. He may be known best for illustrating books written by Roald Dahl. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator he won the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2002, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books. From 1999 to 2001 he was the inaugural British Children's Laureate. He is a patron of the Association of Illustrators...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth16 December 1932
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.
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?
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.
The hateful thing about most hotels nowadays is that they only have duvets. I hate duvets.
I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it.
Going to hospital is rather like going to an alien planet.
It was an accident of circumstance that I never married.
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.
Sometimes I think people get into trouble because they can't say what they want to.
I have an assistant who's very good at email, so I don't struggle with it.
I draw every day - unless I'm being interviewed.
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.
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.
I do like children, but only as people. Not as if they're a special category.