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
With my pictures, what I hope is that it encourages the reader to imagine more pictures of his own.
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'm trained as a teacher; that's the only thing I've got a certificate for.
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.
Inspiration is some mysterious blessing which happens when the wheels are turning smoothly.
Guinea pigs are quite difficult to draw, I think, because they're so furry.
Being positive may be a character defect of mine.
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.
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.
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 have an assistant who's very good at email, so I don't struggle with it.
Sometimes I think people get into trouble because they can't say what they want to.
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.
It was an accident of circumstance that I never married.