Unfortunately this is fake. It’s taken from a parody that Paris Review did on April Fools for 2015. [link]

So why is this being spread around now?

What happened is that, in 2019, Clare Pollard published a history of children’s books titled Fierce Bad Rabbits. In the book’s section on Eric Carle, she cited the spoof interview without realizing it was, in fact, made up. And her publishers failed to do a fact-check, so it went to print as it was.

Then Eric Carle passed away 4 days ago, and someone on twitter shared this screencap from Pollard’s book to celebrate Eric Carle’s memory. And, because Pollard’s publisher didn’t do a proper fact-check, and because Paris Review’s attempt at parodying their own classism & pomposity was done so pompously that you have to stare for a moment to tell they’re joking… Eric Carle’s memory is now being celebrated, via viral tweets and tumblr posts, with a made-up quote that was written to make fun of him. 

Misinformation is fucking magic.

Please reblog. This is now being shared as if factual in Big Issue and The Smithsonian and it is just embarrassing. 

When I die, I hope that my obituary doesn’t include fake quotes attributed to me that were actually made up by people trying to make fun of me, y’know?