Quotes by American authors

"There was a great deal of peer recognition to be gained in elementary school by being able to draw well. One girl could draw horses so well, she was looked upon as a kind of sorceress"

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

"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"

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

"Success is a journey, not a destination"

"Some artists claim praise is irrelevant in measuring the success of art, but I think it's quite relevant. Besides, it makes me feel great"

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home"

"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"

"A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age"

"Sports serve society by providing vivid examples of excellence"

"If you wanna cry ..use tissue paper not your fb status"

"The Dick, Jane, and Spot primers have gone to that bookshelf in the sky. I have, in some ways, a tender feeling toward them, so I think it's for the best"

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

"I fear it's because religion is man's attempt to reach God, and when he feels he has succeeded, he cannot abide anyone else's claim to have done the same"

"Men's best successes come after their disappointments"

"All diseases run into one, old age"

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting"

"I think of my peace paintings as one long poem, with each painting being a single stanza"

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own"

"Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, and what to plan for in the future"

"If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?"

"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised"

"Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair"

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money"

"As much as I'd like to meet the tooth fairy on an evening walk, I don't really believe it can happen"

"The Polar Express is about faith, and the power of imagination to sustain faith. It's also about the desire to reside in a world where magic can happen, the kind of world we all believed in as children, but one that disappears as we grow older"

"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 don't see success as the goal. Obedience is the goal"

"People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other people"

"A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit"