Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburgis an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanjiand The Polar Express, both of which he also wrote; both were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator he was 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth18 June 1949
CountryUnited States of America
I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head
The idea of the extraordinary happening in the context of the ordinary is what's fascinating to me
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.
An award does not change the quality of a book.
its not bad to be different. Sometimes it's the mark of being very very talented.
My ideas are not meant to suggest dreams or reality, but a surreal quality.
I'm not a perfectionist. I'm just very observant.
I take my ideas from my experiences.
Certain peer pressures encourage little fingers to learn how to hold a football instead of a crayon. I confess to having yielded to these pressures.
I pore over every word on the cereal box at breakfast, often more than once. You can ask me anything about shredded wheat.
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.
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 have lots of ideas. The problem for me has always been which one to do.
If you don't know where you're going, stop racing to get there. -- from Just Desert by M. T. Anderson