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

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.

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.

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.

An award does not change the quality of a book.

The place of the worst barbarism is that modern forest that makes use of us, this forest of chimneys and bayonets, machines and weapons, of strange inanimate beasts that feed on human flesh.

Everyone is in love with his own ideas

Nothing to be honest. I am a fighter. I'm crazy already. I'm not afraid of ghosts or anything.

But the Americans have no extra money. They have their own problems. They can provide financial assistance for two, three, four, or six months at most.

The Tibetan Buddhist realization is that mind does not have any particular qualities or attributes of its own. It's clear - clear light.

I call it nirvana, the complete destruction of old age and dying.

Did you hear that we're writing Iraq's new Constitution? Why not just give them ours? We're not using it anymore.

I was in Rent, for Gods sake. The closest we came to stunts was dancing on a table.

At Christmas-tide the open hand Scatters its bounty o'er sea and land, And none are left to grieve alone, For Love is heaven and claims its own.

My rule is: the second you find yourself doing something you hate, quit doing it.