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

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.

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

its not bad to be different. Sometimes it's the mark of being very very talented.

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.

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