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
I love the idea of a tiny window between the back stoop and the pantry, where the milkman would pass through the cheese. But of course, there is no milkman anymore. So somebody coming by the house and seeing the… — 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
