Quotes from Shaun Tan

And when you died I took you down to the river. And when I died you waited for me by the shore. So it was that time passed between us.

It's as if they take all our questions and offer them straight back: Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?

Why do I always listen to your insane plans? Why aren't we at home watching TV like everyone else? What possible difference will any of this make?

without sense or reason

terrible fates are inevitable

Horses know this more than most: The greatest curse of any animal is to be worth money to men.

Maybe this is what our young doppelgangers failed to understand. They believed their good example would be enough. That being right was enough. They knew nothing about injured pride or the true inertia of human nature.

He makes me wonder what damage I could do with them, how badly I could hurt someone if I hit them with a story.

Explanation is a luxury we can't afford these days, and reality doesn't care for it, being far too busy following its own unknowable course.

How much do I love our family? This much. When any kind of emergency strikes, good or bad, we snap together like parts in a machine, like a submarine crew at war in the tin-can clutter of our home, none of the usual debate, character assassination, woeful monologues, and turgid hand-wringing. I've learned to love crises for this reason, how they make us pull together and forget our separateness and sadness; this was the second great gift of the moonfish.

That they would publish for adults and which would find currency with children.

Little people can be empowered through art.

The world is a deaf machine

But there was a lot of happiness discovering so many small things in unexpected places.

All things foamed and fogged and our minds slept where they stood. There was always more shovelling to do.

Maude had been rescued from a nearby lake. She had fallen into it after running two miles from their home, backwards all the way, desperately trying to escape her own feet.

The shop enjoyed some success, particularly in raising the standard of sheep perms.

Sometimes I write captions on the in-flight magazines and then replace them in the seat pocket.

I became more interested in the idea of being an immigrant and particularly of being in a country you're not familiar with. And so I began reading migrants' stories. The fact that my father is Chinese - he emigrated from Malaysia when he was about 20 - may have had some bearing on my attraction to the subject.

The more I draw and write, the more I realise that accidents are a necessary part of any creative act, much more so than logic or wisdom. Sometimes a mistake is the only way of arriving at an original concept, and the history of successful inventions is full of mishaps, serendipity and unintended results.

Perhaps the writer I've read the most of is Haruki Murakami, the Japanese writer, but I wouldn't necessarily say he's a favourite. I read him because I find his work so intriguing, but I don't necessarily feel I would follow this writer to the ends of the earth.

I think 'The Road' is a good example of a book everyone should read, but I wouldn't recommend it to young kids.

When I was growing up, a lot of books affected me, but I never wrote letters to the author or anything like that. I'm always mindful that there are probably a whole bunch of people reading my books like that, too.

Good and bad ideas both come from the same fountain of speculation and experiment.