I don’t know if what kids really want is a hamster. What they want is a dog. So the hamster ends up being a substitute: ‘Well, would you accept this?’ Chris Van Allsburg Read Quote
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 Read Quote
People have asked me a lot, ‘What comes first? The pictures or the story? The story or the picture?’ It’s hard to describe because often they seem to come at the same time. I’m seeing images while I’m thinking of the story. Chris Van Allsburg Read Quote
A good picture book should have events that are visually arresting – the pictures should call attention to what is happening in the story. Chris Van Allsburg Read Quote
Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic. Chris Van Allsburg Read Quote
As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved to draw. But my interest in drawing wasn’t encouraged very much. Chris Van Allsburg Read Quote
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 Read Quote
They don’t send people from large corporations to hire people to make sculptures. Chris Van Allsburg Read Quote
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 Read Quote
