I think parents generally know what's best for their children. But I suppose it's possible to be overprotective.
From Chris Van Allsburg
I've heard stories about authors filled with this kind of Lotto-winner hubris. I'm a Dutch boy from the Midwest. We don't have hubris.
A good picture book should have events that are visually arresting - the pictures should call attention to what is happening in the story.
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.
I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head.
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.
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.
Peter Rabbit's not a rabbit. Peter Rabbit is a proxy for the child who reads the book, and they imagine themselves in the rabbit's position.
As much as I'd like to meet the tooth fairy on an evening walk, I don't really believe it can happen.
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.
5 perspectives
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives