I think most people agree there is a component of skill in art making; you have to learn grammar before you learn how to write.

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?

I don't think ordinary things are very interesting, so I try to imagine a world that is less ordinary.

I'm not a perfectionist. I'm just very observant.

If you don't know where you're going, stop racing to get there. -- from Just Desert by M. T. Anderson

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.

The Polar Express was the easiest of my picture book manuscripts to write... Once I realized the train was going to the North Pole, finding the story seemed less like a creative effort than an act of recollection. I felt, like the storys narrator, that I was remembering something, not making it up.