Interviews
A Conversation with Sandra Boynton
Q: Was there a particular milestone that inspired you to write Yay, You!?
A: I wrote Yay, You! for my son, Keith, as a high-school graduation present. I worked on it in secret, and gave it to him right after the graduation ceremony. He thanked me dutifully, but without marked enthusiasm. I think he would rather have gotten, oh, maybe a car.
Q: Were you very artistic as a child? When did you know that you wanted to pursue art as a career (and did you consider other careers)?
A: Growing up, I never had any particular talent for art; I just always loved to draw and make things (My mother would add, "...and never clean anything up."). The school I went to from age 5 to 17 -- Germantown Friends in Philadelphia -- was an absolutely superb environment, with the arts thoroughly integrated into the curriculum. This kind of effortless immersion is bound to resonate through the life of any student, at school and beyond.
I went to Yale intending to major in art; but the English program at that time was much more in line with my somewhat classical sensibility, so that's the direction I went. I then went to graduate school in drama -- first at U.C. Berkeley, then at Yale -- ostensibly headed for a life as a director. I was designing greeting cards to pay my way through school, and I wrote my first book, Hippos Go Berserk (1979), while I was still a student. When my first daughter was born, I realized that the drawing and writing were much more compatible with a reasonable family life than theater would be, so I followed that path.
Q: What is your favorite medium to work with (pen and ink, marker, paint)?
A: I work almost entirely with technical pen and watercolor -- sometimes pencil. Never computers, except for typography. Pen and fudge is also good, for sepia tones.
Q: Is there a particular reason that you draw mostly animals?
A: Animals are versatile people --surrogates, since in using them, an artist becomes largely freed from the constraints of age, gender, race, and so on. Though the real reason is I have no idea how to draw people.
Q: Do you have a favorite character that you've created?
A: I really don't have a favorite character. People who know me tend to see my cats as me -- and sometimes the hippos (particularly if we're sharing a dessert).
Q: Has your work ever been animated for television/video?
A: I've had quite a few inquiries about animation rights, but I'm unwilling to relinquish that control. If I do animation, it will be at a time that I can assume a central creative role, not a license-granting one. I still have children at home, so it's certainly not the right time yet.
Q: What other authors and artists do you admire?
A: George Eliot, Nabokov, Keats, Shakespeare, Shaw, Dave Barry, Turner, van Gogh, Jessie Willcox Smith, Bill Waterson.
Q: Do you write and draw at the same time, or do the poems come to you outside of the studio?
A: It's rare to be suddenly inspired -- a fairy chicken with a magic wand appears kind of thing. Though perhaps I wouldn't admit it if that were to happen. I'm pretty prosaic: I work when I work. Sometimes the pictures are first, sometimes the words, sometimes they're apparently simultaneous.
Q: Chocolate is often mentioned in your work. Do you have a favorite chocolate treat?
A: I like intense, brooding, elegant dark chocolate, often with toasted almonds.
Q: What do you have planned for your next book?
A: I wish I knew.
This interview has been provided by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
