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Chris Van Allsburg Quotes

Powerful Chris Van Allsburg for Daily Growth

The general effect of viewing 'Jumanji' is thrilling. I was able to see on film a thing that at one point had only existed in my imagination. I got to see the images from my book come alive.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Book, Alive, Images, Thrilling

My ideas are not meant to suggest dreams or reality, but a surreal quality.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Ideas, Reality, Meant, Surreal

Santa is our culture's only mythic figure truly believed in by a large percentage of the population. It's a fact that most of the true believers are under eight years old, and that's a pity.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Christmas, Fact, Believers, Percentage

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.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Signature, Away, Idea, Personalized

In the same way that a mundane object can have a personality somehow, I try to suggest that a mundane setting can have some menace behind it.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Behind, Some, Suggest, Menace

Even the most complicated stories start with a very simple premise.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Most, Very, Stories, Premise

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

Questions, Asking, I See, Illustration

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

Parent, Doing, Been, Part-Time

The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what's fascinating to me.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Me, Extraordinary, Idea, Context

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

Magic, Doing, I Remember, Magician

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

Certainly, Underserved, Specifically

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

Think, Some, Measuring, Claim

I was about 28-29 when I wrote my first story, and that was called 'The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.'

- Chris Van Allsburg

First, About, Wrote, Garden

If I'm not working on something, I'm eager to work on something because it's so gratifying.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Work, Working, Eager, Gratifying

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

Mind, Brain, Isolation, Tasks

I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Head, Still, I Write, Rattling

I think it's difficult to forget things that are unresolved.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Think, Forget, I Think, Unresolved

'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

Idea, Polar, Began, Train

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 window would say, 'Oh, that must be original, because that's where the milkman passed the cheese through to the pantry.'

- Chris Van Allsburg

Love, Through, Stoop, Be Original

I don't like to get scared - it's not one of the emotions I enjoy. So I have to assume that if there are scary things in my books, they aren't very scary.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Emotions, Like, Very, Scared

Brainstorming, for me, takes place in my bed at night between the time I turn out my lights and I finally fall asleep. It is not a very violent storm, but what's happening is I am just thinking about different ideas and maybe things I've seen that day that I think might make a good story.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Bed, Violent, Very, Different Ideas

The Polar Express is about faith, and the power of imagination to sustain faith. It's also about the desire to reside in a world where magic can happen, the kind of world we all believed in as children, but one that disappears as we grow older.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Magic, Happen, Polar, Disappears

Authors of books are not given very much control over the films that are made from their books.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Over, Very, Given, Authors

I've heard stories about authors filled with this kind of Lotto-winner hubris. I'm a Dutch boy from the Midwest. We don't have hubris.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Kind, Stories, About, Authors

What kids are exposed to on television is more frightening and horrifying than what they see in my books.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Television, See, Books, Exposed

They don't send people from large corporations to hire people to make sculptures.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Hire, Sculptures, Large, Send

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

Art, Always, Which, Represent

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

Happen, Like, Tooth Fairy, Fairy

There was a great deal of peer recognition to be gained in elementary school by being able to draw well. One girl could draw horses so well, she was looked upon as a kind of sorceress.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Deal, Could, Looked, Great Deal

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.

- Chris Van Allsburg

Sky, Some, Tender, Bookshelf

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