Peter Sis: Why I made The Pilot and The Little Prince – in pictures

In this gallery Peter Sis, tells us why he created his book The Pilot and the Little Prince, which tells the story of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, the book that was published over 70 years ago and still sells around million copies a year. Peter Sis: I always liked to draw airplanes. Photograph: Peter Sis

When I was about 12 years in Prague Czechoslovakia I read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry and it inspired me for life. I sort of knew the author was a pilot… Photograph: Peter Sis

Years later I found myself living in New York city in the US, as an artist trying to belong, I was surprised to find out that Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote The Little Prince in New York. Photograph: Peter Sis

He was exiled there and he did not speak English. He tried to belong just like almost everybody in New York. He was dreaming about flying… Photograph: Peter Sis

There were stories about alligators crawling out of the sewers of Manhattan in the old days… Antoine de Saint Exupéry flew most of his life and saw the world from above. Did every cloud, place or landscape remind him of something else? Is this why he became a writer? Photograph: Peter Sis

Manhattan is in a shape of a whale, an alligator or a submarine. Or anything you feel like. Photograph: Peter Sis

Did he go on the top of The Empire State Building to let his little paper planes fly all over the city? To fly home? Photograph: Peter Sis

Antoine was born just when airplanes were invented and always wanted to be a pilot. He invented a flying machine at age 12. He attached some rods and sheets to his bicycle and a local carpenter built him a ramp… Photograph: Peter Sis

His invention did not take off… but that did not stop him. Photograph: Peter Sis

He got a job as a pilot delivering mail from France first from France to Spain, then West Africa and crossing Atlantic Americas… These were brave new days and Antoine wrote about them in his books. Photograph: Peter Sis

He would see the world changing and war coming from above in the air. Photograph: Peter Sis

He fought as a war pilot and escaped to New York to write The Little Prince in exile. Antoine de Saint Exupéry said he did his clearest thinking up in the air… how do you draw that? Photograph: Peter Sis

Now what jacket should I draw for a book about his life? The Pilot and The Little Prince, the Life of Antoine De Saint Exupery by Peter Sis is available in the Guardian bookshop. Photograph: Peter Sis