Chris Allsburg

The Polar Express was the easiest of my picture book manuscripts to write... Once I realized the train was going read more

The Polar Express was the easiest of my picture book manuscripts to write... Once I realized the train was going to the North Pole, finding the story seemed less like a creative effort than an act of recollection. I felt, like the story's narrator, that I was remembering something, not making it up.

The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what's fascinating to me.

The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what's fascinating to me.

I am fascinated by the act of making something real that at one point is only an idea. It is read more

I am fascinated by the act of making something real that at one point is only an idea. It is challenging and beguiling to sense something inside, put it on paper (or carve it in stone), and then step back and see how much has got lost in the process.

Each story I've written starts out as a vague idea that seems to be going nowhere, then suddenly materializes as read more

Each story I've written starts out as a vague idea that seems to be going nowhere, then suddenly materializes as a completed concept. It almost seems like a discovery, as if the story was always there. The few elements I start out with are actually clues. If I figure out what they mean, I can discover the story that's waiting.

Some artists claim praise is irrelevant in measuring the success of art, but I think it's quite relevant. Besides, it read more

Some artists claim praise is irrelevant in measuring the success of art, but I think it's quite relevant. Besides, it makes me feel great.