The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Dick Bruna
Artist
About the author
I want a nice picture book with 12 pictures - I do my best with that format.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Want
When I make a book, I make it for the child and not for the parent - no jokes in it for the parents!
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Jokes
Then one day I thought it would be wonderful to make a whole book, to make my text and my drawings together, and that's how I started doing children's books.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Children
#Day
#Thought
#Books
Right at the beginning, I didn't know if Miffy was a boy or girl.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Right
#Beginning
Now, I had been drawing all this time - especially in France of course - so, when I came back, my father gave me the chance to do a cover for one of the books he published.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Time
#Now
#Chance
#Books
#France
#Father
Before he went to sleep, I told him a little story about a rabbit we saw run around the beach house we rented.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Sleep
#Beach
Miffy has changed quite a lot since the early books, although I never realised it at the time.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Time
#Books
I thought it would be very nice to become Picasso or Rembrandt, or a van Gogh.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Thought
I thought it was amazing to work with authors, to get a manuscript and try to make up a cover for it.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Work
#Thought
I have been drawing all my life.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Life
I did about 2000 covers altogether, for all sorts of books - from Shakespeare to James Bond - and I always had the idea that I must give 100%, no matter who the author was.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Idea
#Books
#Shakespeare
I come from a family of business people, but I had the idea I wanted to become an artist.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#People
#Family
#Idea
#Business
#Artist
Each book first begins with a little idea.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#First
#Idea
But we discovered that, although I liked publishing, the commercial side meant nothing at all to me.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Nothing
#Publishing
But I don't sit down and think: this is meant for children.
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#Children
My father realised that for me to become a publisher in his firm would have been the end of the firm!
Dick Bruna,
Artist
#End
#Father