I didn't draw Angelina to be famous; I did it simply because I've always had to earn a living.

- Helen Craig

I started drawing a mouse because it was my father's nickname for my mother. And mice are very expressive.

- Helen Craig

If an actor only comes alive when he has lines to say, it doesn't work, and the same goes for illustrated characters.

- Helen Craig

It's great to be working. Every morning, I wake up and pinch myself.

- Helen Craig

Mice are very difficult to do front on, but they have nicely human little hands and feet, and whiskers and tails are great for expressing emotion.

- Helen Craig

My great influence has been Maurice Sendak, who drew 'Where the Wild Things Are.' His characters really interact with each other.

- Helen Craig

When you read 'author Katharine Holabird, creator of Angelina' and you're not even mentioned, you wince.

- Helen Craig

As a child, I had always wanted to know what lay at the end of a corridor or behind a door in a picture, so I did a floorplan and elevations of Angelina's house and learned my way around it. The idea was that children should start to feel at home in it.

- Helen Craig

I grew up during the war years in a tiny cottage with no electricity. Water for washing was pumped from a pond. My brother and I had to fetch drinking water from a tap at the end of the lane, and light was from candles, paraffin lamps, and our nightly log fire.

- Helen Craig