Brian Selznick Quotes

• When I was in high school, everyone used to tell me that I should write and illustrate children’s books. Or mostly illustrate, because I guess there was something about my style that made people think it’d work in children’s literature. I didn’t really know anything about it, and like many people who don’t, I didn’t think it was a serious art form.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Art

  Tags in School, Anything

• What interests me about clocks is that everything is hand-made, and yet to the person looking at the clock, something magical is happening that cannot be explained unless you are the clockmaker.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Looking, Cannot

• The orphan in children’s literature allows the child protagonist to move the story forward themselves. I think that, however happy a family, every intelligent child thinks: ‘How did I come to be born to these parents?’ – it is about finding your place in the world.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Happy, Forward

• Sometimes, I have themes that interest me or that touch on larger issues but, really, I’m just trying to figure out the plot, or how the characters work. I’m trying to make the best story I possibly can.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Story, Best

• I’ve always loved the wild rumpus in ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak, because the words disappear, the pictures take up the whole page, and we move forward in the story by turning the pages.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Forward, Words

• 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.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Important, Afraid

• 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.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Libraries, Place

• 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.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Design, School

• I love being an illustrator because I get to read really great stories, work with amazing people, travel and see places I never would’ve seen. And I get to draw all the time.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Stories, Thought

• I guess I see a part of myself in everyone I write about. I tend to write about kids who are obsessed with something, and even though I have never been good with machines the way Hugo is, I did love miniature things when I was a kid.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Good, Everyone, Kid

• I definitely think my work comes from things that I liked as a kid, and things I still like now. Monsters and magic and museums and movies, a lot of things that start with ‘M’ for some reason.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Movies

  Tags in Reason, Definitely

• 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.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Struggle, Writing

• 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?

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Feeling, Through

• A lot of people who don’t write for kids think it’s easy, because they think kids aren’t as smart as they are, or that you have to dumb down what you would normally write for kids. But I think you have to work harder when you write for kids, to make sure every word is right, that it’s there for the right reason.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Down, Smart

• A lot of times, people complain about how books and stories change when they’re translated to the screen. But I think sometimes people forget that a lot of changes have to be made because we’re not in a book when we’re watching a movie.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Book, Forget

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

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Writing, Process

• A friend suggested that I get a job at a children’s book store so I could meet kids and read books, and that turned out to be the single best bit of advice I’ve ever gotten.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Best, Friend

• 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.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Book, Time

• 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.

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Big, Once

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

  Brian Selznick

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Adapting, Artists

Brian Selznick (25)

Birth:	14th July, 1966
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Illustrator, Writer

About

Brian Selznick was born and grew up in East Brunswick Township, New Jersey. He is an American illustrator and writer best known for illustrating children's books. He won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration recognizing The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was his first long work as a writer.

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