Chris Van Allsburg

They don't send people from large corporations to hire people to make sculptures.

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.

I have very positive memories of reading biographies of unusual Americans as a child.

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.

It seems to me that not only the writing in most children's books condescends to kids, but so does the art. I don't want to do that.

When somebody says, 'This must be a children's book,' basically they're saying, 'You must be a child.' And so my answer is, 'Well, yes, I guess I am a child.' But I don't think of myself that way.

I think parents generally know what's best for their children. But I suppose it's possible to be overprotective.

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.

Following my muse has worked out pretty well so far. I can't see any reason to change the formula now.

It was the case for a number of years that I was doing a book a year, but that was back when I was part-time teaching - and since 1991, I've been a parent, so that cuts into the time!

The opportunity to create a small world between two pieces of cardboard, where time exists yet stands still, where people talk and I tell them what to say, is exciting and rewarding.

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.