I have lots of ideas. The problem for me has always been which one to do.

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.

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 sword of the scripture.

To grow up is to wonder about things

People have already dirtied my name too much.

I think it's important to be authentic to who you are, and if you're inauthentic at all, people smell that from a mile away.

Women tend to immediately take responsibility if somebody messes up with both of us saying it's our fault. Men are quite happy for it to be your fault it seems like.

There's not a strong autobiographical strain in my fiction. A few bits of fact here and there.

I certainly think Obama is the most hopeful president I've seen in the country since John Kennedy.

If each one of us starts thinking, learning, and understanding more about water and the fact that we are water-based ourselves, then we can start to love, thank, and respect water in our daily lives.

We are impressed and even daunted by the immense Universe to be explored. "What we know is a point to what we do not know."

Everybody has to learn that the world works in very specific ways, and you're not in charge of it.