Top 59 Quotes by Chris Van Allsburg

Your house is all about routine, not the unexpected events of your life.

At 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.

Growing up in the 1950s, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, boys were supposed to be athletic.

I'm not a perfectionist. I'm just very observant.

I sculpted for four or five years. Mostly for my own amusement, I decided to do a picture book, and that was kind of a turning point.

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

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.

The crudest thing I've done as a teacher was to require students to write a national anthem for their country and sing it themselves.

In the same way that a mundane object can have a personality somehow, I try to suggest that a mundane setting can have some menace behind it.

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.