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.

The Polar Express began with the idea of a train standing alone in the woods. I asked myself, What if a boy gets on that train? Where does he go?

I write for what's left of the eight-year-old still rattling around inside my head

its not bad to be different. Sometimes it's the mark of being very very talented.

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

Following my muse has worked out pretty well so far. I can't see any reason to change the formula now.

I don't think ordinary things are very interesting, so I try to imagine a world that is less ordinary.

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.

I pore over every word on the cereal box at breakfast, often more than once. You can ask me anything about shredded wheat.

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.

An award does not change the quality of a book.

Ask any successfully married couple what keeps their relationship alive and they will tell you, "interest." It's as simple as that.

When people see you're happy doing what you're doing, it sort of takes the power away from them to tease you about it.

It's not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.

Nothing is more important than my egomania!

By the way, everybody approaches acting differently. Like, I'm kind of sloppy and I like it kind of loose. I like to kind of play around. Some people don't.

Stories," he'd said, his voice low and almost husky, "we are made up of stories. And even the one's that seem the most like lies can be our deepest hidden truths.

I think the most important is when I was young, I learnt martial arts; that is my special key.

Learn to drink as you pour, so the spiritual heart cannot run dry and you always have love to give.

I do respect the political process and those that cover politics on a regular basis. It's just not for me.

We insist that society should conform to our own subjective illusion of reality.