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.

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

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 inclination to believe in the fantastic may strike some as a failure in logic, or gullibility, but it’s really a gift. A world that might have Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster is clearly superior to one that definitely does not.

I take my ideas from my experiences.

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.

Though I’ve grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe.