I am never really surprised at the way my books take shape. They are just not as perfect as I'd like them to be. — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
I don't know if what kids really want is a hamster. What they want is a dog. So the hamster ends up being a substitute: 'Well, would you accept this?' — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
My ideas are not meant to suggest dreams or reality, but a surreal quality. — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
'The Polar Express' began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, 'What if a boy gets on… — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
“Book lovers love books!" her mother announced. "There's romance about the books- even having them seems to have a kind of excitement." from Mr.… — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
Following my muse has worked out pretty well so far. I can't see any reason to change the formula now. — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
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… — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
I don't like to travel. Yet all my books seem to involve a journey. — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
Some people may contend that there is no image more charming that a child holding a puppy or kitten. But for me that's a… — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
In the same way that a mundane object can have a personality somehow, I try to suggest that a mundane setting can have some… — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
Even the most complicated stories start with a very simple premise. — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
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… — Chris Van Allsburg Copy Share Image
