You discover how confounding the world is when you try to draw it. You look at a car, and you try to see its car-ness, and you're like an immigrant to your own world. You don't have to travel to encounter weirdness. You wake up to it. Shaun Tan carconfounddiscover share on social
Like all of my previous work - which I also hope is a bit hard to categorise - 'The Oopsatoreum' is an illustrated book, so a combination of words and pictures that tell a kind of story. Shaun Tan bitebookcategorise Change image and share on social
By itself, just to draw crazy creatures has limited appeal - if I had to give up one thing, it would be the wild imagination. When the work becomes too detached from ordinary life, it starts to fall apart. Fantasy needs to have some connection with reality, or it becomes of its own interest only, insular. Shaun Tan appealconnectioncrazy share on social
Seeing your work in print is exciting, especially when you're young. It's that feeling that you have some effect on the world outside of your immediate neighbourhood. Shaun Tan effectexcitfelt Change image and share on social
I like the idea of contained emotion because I grew up most of my life feeling that way. As an adolescent, people would always say I was not expressive, and they always made the mistake of thinking that I didn't feel anything because I didn't react to things. Shaun Tan adolescentcontainemotion share on social
Sometimes I write captions on the in-flight magazines and then replace them in the seat pocket. Shaun Tan captionflightmagazine Change image and share on social
Good and bad ideas both come from the same fountain of speculation and experiment. Shaun Tan badexperimentfountain Change image and share on social