Quotes from Chris Van Allsburg

What kids are exposed to on television is more frightening and horrifying than what they see in my books.

As much as I'd like to meet the tooth fairy on an evening walk, I don't really believe it can happen.

As the years went by I became a writer and illustrator, although exclusively of fantasies.

People have asked me a lot, 'What comes first? The pictures or the story? The story or the picture?' It's hard to describe because often they seem to come at the same time. I'm seeing images while I'm thinking of the story.

The Dick, Jane, and Spot primers have gone to that bookshelf in the sky. I have, in some ways, a tender feeling toward them, so I think it's for the best.

I think most people agree there is a component of skill in art making; you have to learn grammar before you learn how to write.

I don't like to travel. Yet all my books seem to involve a journey.

Santa is our culture's only mythic figure truly believed in by a large percentage of the population. It's a fact that most of the true believers are under eight years old, and that's a pity.

Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic.

I've heard stories about authors filled with this kind of Lotto-winner hubris. I'm a Dutch boy from the Midwest. We don't have hubris.

I sculpted for four or five years. Mostly for my own amusement, I decided to do a picture book, and that was kind of a turning point.

Following my muse has worked out pretty well so far. I can't see any reason to change the formula now.

My stories are often a little mysterious.

It did occur to me that certainly African-Americans are not underserved in picture books, but those books are almost all about specifically black experiences.

The whole idea of being mesmerized and not in control of your own actions is fascinating and a little spooky. I remember hearing about someone who'd gone to a magic act, and a person in the audience had become hypnotized by observing too closely what magician was doing on stage, and thought it was spooky to lose your consciousness that way.

I think it's difficult to forget things that are unresolved.

I have very positive memories of reading biographies of unusual Americans as a child.

A good picture book should have events that are visually arresting - the pictures should call attention to what is happening in the story.

The Polar Express began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?

Certain peer pressures encourage little fingers to learn how to hold a football instead of a crayon. Rumors circulate around the schoolyard: kids who draw or wear white socks and bring violins to school on Wednesdays might have cooties. I confess to having yielded to these pressures.

The Polar Express is about faith, and the power of imagination to sustain faith. It's also about the desire to reside in a world where magic can happen, the kind of world we all believed in as children, but one that disappears as we grow older.

Santa is our culture's only mythic figure truly believed in by a large percentage of the population. It's a fact that most of the true believers are under eight years old, and that's a pity.

At one time, most of my friends could hear the bell, but as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found one Christmas that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe.

The inclination to believe in the fantastic may strike some as a failure in logic, or gullibility, but it's really a gift. A world that might have Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster is clearly superior to one that definitely does not.