Chris Van Allsburg Quotes
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I try to satisfy the desires that people have to have their books personalized. That's a value, or feature, of bibliophilia that may vanish. How do you get your e-book signed? The idea of people standing in line to get my signature in their book, it's hard to turn them away.
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My ideas are not meant to suggest dreams or reality, but a surreal quality.
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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.
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I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head.
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At first, I see pictures of a story in my mind. Then creating the story comes from asking questions of myself. I guess you might call it the 'what if - what then' approach to writing and illustration.
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Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.
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What kids are exposed to on television is more frightening and horrifying than what they see in my books.
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I think parents generally know what's best for their children. But I suppose it's possible to be overprotective.
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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.
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I think it's difficult to forget things that are unresolved.
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Some artists claim praise is irrelevant in measuring the success of art, but I think it's quite relevant. Besides, it makes me feel great.
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It was the case for a number of years that I was doing a book a year, but that was back when I was part-time teaching - and since 1991, I've been a parent, so that cuts into the time!
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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.
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The theory of isolation of certain tasks in certain hemispheres of the brain suggests I shouldn't even be able to speak, never mind write.
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I don't like to travel. Yet all my books seem to involve a journey.
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As much as I'd like to meet the tooth fairy on an evening walk, I don't really believe it can happen.
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I was about 28-29 when I wrote my first story, and that was called 'The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.'
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The crudest thing I've done as a teacher was to require students to write a national anthem for their country and sing it themselves.
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It seems to me that not only the writing in most children's books condescends to kids, but so does the art. I don't want to do that.
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Peter Rabbit's not a rabbit. Peter Rabbit is a proxy for the child who reads the book, and they imagine themselves in the rabbit's position.
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Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic.
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I've always thought of the book as a visual art form, and it should represent a single artistic idea, which it does if you write your own material.
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Your house is all about routine, not the unexpected events of your life.
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I think, for the most part, our culture embraces that artists are born, not made.