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There's definitely a value in being literate.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg
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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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
What kids are exposed to on television is more frightening and horrifying than what they see in my books.
Chris Van Allsburg -
The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what's fascinating to me.
Chris Van Allsburg -
I don't like to travel. Yet all my books seem to involve a journey.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
I was about 28-29 when I wrote my first story, and that was called 'The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.'
Chris Van Allsburg
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'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?'
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg
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I think it's difficult to forget things that are unresolved.
Chris Van Allsburg -
I think parents generally know what's best for their children. But I suppose it's possible to be overprotective.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
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.
Chris Van Allsburg -
Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic.
Chris Van Allsburg
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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!
Chris Van Allsburg -
As much as I'd like to meet the tooth fairy on an evening walk, I don't really believe it can happen.
Chris Van Allsburg -
They don't send people from large corporations to hire people to make sculptures.
Chris Van Allsburg -
I'm not surprised that my books appeal to adults.
Chris Van Allsburg