Brian Selznick Quotes & Sayings

“But I'm a fairly mechanical worker - I tend not to think about themes so much as plot. I want to get the feeling right. If it's moving through tunnels, I ask myself, what is it like to move through tunnels?”

“I think everything belongs in a certain place, for kids who feel they don't belong anywhere. A museum is an institution like a library where everything has a place, everything belongs.”

“I think the most important thing you can do is to keep drawing no matter what. And to not be afraid of drawing whatever interests you. If there is something that you want to draw, to make, then I think you should pursue it and not let anybody tell you that you can't do it.”

“I can draw pencil lines to show something is moving, but if I'm writing, I struggle with how to write it. The boy ran down the hallway? The boy ran quickly down the hallway? The boy ran down the marble hallway? I agonize over the words. So my editor works very hard. I'm lucky to have her.”

“I think when I'm drawing, I'm seeing what's happening on the page almost as if it were unfolding like a movie in my head.”

“I think I always knew that I would do something with art because it was the one thing that I knew I was really good at.”

“Well, everything surprises me about the writing process because illustrating comes much more naturally to me than writing does.”

“I think from an early age I was aware of how a camera can tell a story, how a movie camera can affect how the narrative is told.”

“I've been taking art lessons since I was little, and I've always drawn. I think in pictures.”

“I majored in illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, although I never had any intention of being an illustrator and didn't take any classes in illustration there. It was just that the illustration degree had no requirements.”