respecting the life of the child (23 August 2016)

 

I come from a family of business people, but I had the idea I wanted to become an artist.

- Dick Bruna

Miffy has changed quite a lot since the early books, although I never realised it at the time.

- Dick Bruna

Why is Miffy so timeless? That is difficult to explain, but a child is also timeless.

- Dick Bruna

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

I want a nice picture book with 12 pictures - I do my best with that format...
I work very long on each book, sometimes two or three months, because I think all the twelve illustrations have to be nice pieces of graphic art.

- Dick Bruna

I cycle always from my home to my studio - about 20 minutes.

- Dick Bruna

It's hard not to be struck by Bruna's modesty and sweet nature. Even the details of his daily routine have a picturesque simplicity, and in his artless, unadorned English they take on an almost Zen-like purity. He rises every day at 5 or 5.30, squeezes a glass of orange juice for his wife, Irene, and draws her a picture. The pictures - all of which she has kept - are about things she has done, or reminders of things she is planning to do. He says that, on the morning of my visit, 'I did a little drawing about bridge, because she's going to bridge tonight'.
He then hops on his bicycle and goes to a cafe - always the same one - for a coffee, which is ready for him when he arrives. In the morning he works on drawing in his studio; he cycles home for lunch.

- Dick Bruna, creator of the Miffy books, talks about his life and work (The Telegraph)