Leonard Marcus interviewed James Marshall (author of George and Martha, among many other books) for Publishers Weekly in 1989. The same interview was included in Marcus' book Ways of Telling.
- I think I became an artist because I wanted a studio, because I wanted to buy art supplies.
- I quickly realized that I would die of a stroke if I had to teach high school for the rest of my life. That's when I started drawing. That's when the doodling began.
- I think I also got into doing children's books because I thought it would be easy. It's a lot of fun sometimes - but it ain't easy.
- Doing two- or three-page stories is the hardest thing.
- I've ruined so many books with no-good endings.
- I really cannot stand it if something in a picture is misplaced.
- I have the beginnings, I guess, of a hundred stories that never went anywhere, which I know somebody could finish.
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Since I couldn't find any good pictures of our James Marshall, I'm posting a portrait of this other James Marshall, second President of Coe College (1887-1896). |
James Marshall could make no-good endings if he wanted to, because his beginnings and middles were so amazing. But then, most of his endings were, too, to be honest.
ReplyDelete