Brian Selznick Quotations

If you lose your purpose ... it's like you're broken.

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.

I love illustrating for other writers because I am given stories I never would have thought of, and my work as an illustrator is always in support of the story.

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 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.

Since I spend such a long time making each book, I only choose books that I'm really interested in and that I really love.

It's fun to see how other artists adapt my work.

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 cant do it.

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

Once I'm given an idea for a story I have a million ideas on how it should be illustrated, but I don't have a big shoebox full of unfinished ideas.