Wednesday, January 4, 2012

What James Marshall said

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).

1 comment:

  1. 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.

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