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 AllsburgI'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 AllsburgCertain peer pressures encourage little fingers to learn how to hold a football instead of a crayon. I confess to having yielded to these pressures.
Chris Van AllsburgAt 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 AllsburgThe 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.
Chris Van Allsburg