← And here’s what it said in the book: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing it. 🔊✎
← My drawing wasn’t supposed to be a hat. It was supposed to be a boa constrictor who had swallowed an elephant.
← So I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, to help the grown-up people understand. 🔊✎
← So then I don’t talk to them about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. 🔊✎
← The grown-ups discouraged me from continuing my career as a painter when I was six, and I never learned to draw anything except boa constrictors from the outside and from the inside. 🔊✎
← Since I had never drawn a sheep, I thought I would draw one of the two things I did know how to draw, the boa constrictor from the outside. 🔊✎
← And I was astonished to hear the little guy say: “No! No! I don’t want an elephant in a boa constrictor! 🔊✎
← A boa constrictor is way too dangerous and an elephant is way too big. 🔊✎
← It’s hard to start drawing again at my age, if all you’ve ever done are two pictures of a boa constrictor from the outside and from the inside, when you were six. 🔊✎
← “You’re not being fair, kid,” I said. “I didn’t know how to draw anything except for boa constrictors from the outside and boa constrictors from the inside.” 🔊✎