I have also been fortunate to deal in the world of the rare book, with some of the finest writers of literature for so-called adults, people like Kaye Gibbons, Robert Owen Butler, Larry Brown, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Updike. And when I get into this discussion with people who are in children's literature, they are defensive. They don't want to hear this. To them, there is no difference between children's literature and adult literature. Well, maybe there isn't.
Good writing is good writing.
I don't care who does it, or who the audience is, but as an illustrator, adult literature demands something of me that children's literature doesn't. By the same token, children's literature demands things of me that adult literature doesn't. And I'm not saying that one is easier, better, more important, less important. All I'm saying is that there is a difference in density. I sometimes respond by saying I'm a booksmith, which comes closer to the truth.