Brian Selznick Quotes

Fairy tales only happen in movies.
-George Melies
from The Invention of Hugo Cabret ~ Brian Selznick

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. ~ Brian Selznick

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

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

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," translated Florent. "By Jules Verne. This book I have not read in many years."

"We're reading it in French class," Joseph said. "It's hard to understand, but I found a line that Uncle Albert would love."

Florent opened to a dog-eared page where Joseph had underlined a sentence and written the translation in the margin. Florent read it out loud. "'Let me tell you, Professor, that you will not regret the time spent on board. You are going to travel in a a land of marvels. ~ Brian Selznick

I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers. ~ Brian Selznick

Remember, Little Nightingale, you can always stop doing dangerous things. And you can prove yourself trustworthy, right? Start by forgiving your uncle for his anger. That would be a nice gift. ~ Brian Selznick

The machine was so intricate, so complicated, that he almost got dizzy looking at it. Even in its sad state of disrepair, it was beautiful. ~ Brian Selznick

Hugo headed off toward the door to leave, but the bookstore was warm and quiet, and the teetering piles of books fascinated him. ~ Brian Selznick

Albert shrugged, but Joseph could sense a world of things his uncle wasn't saying. ~ Brian Selznick

Amber starts off as sap from a tree," Joseph said in the dark. "And sometimes insects get caught in it, and over millions of years the amber turns into a gemstone, but it traps the insect inside."
"Oh."
"A photograph is sort of like that, don't you think? ~ Brian Selznick

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

Time is supposed to move forwards.'

'What if I don't like what happens?'

'Then...you change it. ~ Brian Selznick

She walked to the rear door and took out a bobby pin from her pocket. Hugo watched as she fiddled with the pin inside the lock until it clicked and the door opened. "How did you learn to do that?" asked Hugo. "Books," answered Isabelle. ~ Brian Selznick

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

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

Maybe time is like that insect," Blink said, "trapped beneath the crystal of your watch. ~ Brian Selznick

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

I like the pages to turn. I like the bookness of the book. ~ Brian Selznick

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

I knew I had to break up with Ann Rosenberg after she chose a teal dress for the prom. I had never heard of teal. Also, I was gay. ~ Brian Selznick

It looks like the whole city is made out of stars. ~ Brian Selznick

Having an eye patch actually makes it easier to look through a camera - I don't have to close one eye like everyone else. ~ Brian Selznick

Standing on the roof at night, beside the golden ship
I look across the city and I dream a wild trip.
The waves are high, the wind is strong, the moon is white and full.
I smell the salt upon the sea, a strong magnetic pull.
I shout into the endless dark, awaiting the reply:
'Away! Away' It says: 'Away! Now spread your wings and fly. ~ Brian Selznick

Maybe we are all cabinets of wonders. ~ Brian Selznick

Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason?" he asked Isabelle. "They are built to make you laugh, like the mouse here, or to tell the time, like clocks, or to fill you with wonder like the automaton. Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was made to do." Isabelle picked up the mouse, wound it again, and set it down. "Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continued. "If you lose your purpose ... it's like you're broken. ~ Brian Selznick

You either see it or you don't ~ Brian Selznick

My house had suddenly turned into a hospital ward. ~ Brian Selznick

But there are other stories waiting to be told, and they will be lost one day, too. Whatever the case, it's all beneath your feet, right now. ~ Brian Selznick

Then you know Prometheus was rescued in the end. His chains were broken, and he was finally set free." The old man squinted one of his eyes and added, "How about that? ~ Brian Selznick

I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. ~ Brian Selznick

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

Like a mermaid rising from an ocean of paper, the girl emerged across the room. ~ Brian Selznick

But he'd never seen anything like this before. And he'd never felt anything like it, either. The closest he could think of was when he and Blink were immersed in a book together. Sometimes a strange feeling would come over them as they'd race through the pages, and the words would dissolve, and they'd find themselves deep inside Oz, or Narnia, or the Andes, or Africa, where everything was real and vidid and alive.
Stories could do that, but this wasn't story. This was a house. And no matter how real a story seemed, you still couldn't eat the food, or pick up the plates, or warm yourself by the fire. ~ Brian Selznick

He often took me to the studio where the movies were made and I remember it as if it were yesterday. I remember how the sun shone through all the windows. I thought it looked like a fairytale palace. One afternoon your husband appeared and shook my hand. And he told me something I never forgot. He crouched on one knee and whispered to me, "If you ever wanted to know where dreams come from when you're sleeping at night, you just have to look around you, that's where they are made. ~ Brian Selznick

Maybe we're all cabinets of wonders. ~ Brian Selznick

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

Time can play all sorts of tricks on you. In the blink of an eye, babies appear in carriages, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and children transform, like butterflies, into adults. ~ Brian Selznick

For most of my career I illustrated books for other people. ~ Brian Selznick

You can make up your own story when you look at a photo. ~ Brian Selznick

Ben wished the world was organized by the Dewey decimal system. That way you'd be able to find whatever you were looking for. ~ Brian Selznick

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

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

If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from when you go to sleep at night, just look around. This is where they are made. ~ Brian Selznick

I've always loved children's books - it's not that I didn't like them, I just didn't think I wanted to do that. But then I suddenly realized I did ... ~ Brian Selznick

Maybe that's why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn't able to do what it was meant to do ... Maybe it's the same with people," Hugo continued. "If you lose your purpose ... it's like your broken. ~ Brian Selznick

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

Truthfully, we don't want my Weezer affiliation to have any bearing on whether someone likes us or not. It's an entirely different thing. The Space Twins have our own chemistry. ~ Brian Bell

Namely, each messenger particle is a string that's executing a particular vibrational pattern. A photon is a string vibrating in one particular pattern, a W particle is a string vibrating in a different pattern, a gluon is a string vibrating in yet another pattern. And, of prime importance, what Schwarz and Scherk showed in 1974 is that there is a parti Table ~ Brian Greene

I really believe that's one of the many reasons that God had put me right in the middle of the Backstreet Boys. There are so many stars today that don't realize the impact they have on young people. Being a superstar is great, as long as you can be a positive role model. ~ Brian Littrell

No one wants one language. There are applications when it's appropriate to write something in C rather than in Java. If you want to write something where performance is much more important than extensibility, then you might want to choose C rather than Java. ~ Brian Behlendorf

In 'Sidney's Comet,' thanks to all the consumerism, all the garbage had to be put in deep space, even though we're not supposed to litter the cosmos - that was an environmental message. Although it was funny, it had an important message. ~ Brian Herbert

Civilization is the distance man has placed between himself and his excreta. ~ Brian W. Aldiss

Peter was quiet. He put his fingertip to the floorboard and traced the words "thank you" in the old tongue and then blew the words away. ~ Brian McGreevy

You can't pay for healthcare if we're sending a trillion dollars a year to dictators. ~ Brian Schweitzer

I think cable has been under-appreciated for its contribution to society. ~ Brian Roberts

Like most conversations and most chess games, we all start off the same and we all end the same, with a brief moment of difference in between. Fertilization to fertilizer. Ashes to ashes. And we spark across the gap. ~ Brian Christian

I really believe the only thing you can control in those situations is what you do as a player but also how you interact with your teammates, which is critical. ~ Brian Griese

The price of success must be paid in full, in advance. ~ Brian Tracy

Everything is obtainable, and if we have not yet done so, it's high time that we get rid of this word 'can't' from our vocabulary. Anything can be done, but not everything will be done. It's a matter of conscious effort. ~ Brian Wacik

In my normal life I'm a very unadventurous person. ~ Brian Eno

Is not the light of day a wondrous thing? It banishes all fears and worries of the previous night. ~ Brian Jacques

I don't like celebrity programmes - but I do like programmes about how ideas are formed and evolve. ~ Brian Eno

I had quite a religious upbringing. I gave my life over to Christ at 11. I took it back when I was about 14. ~ Brian Molko

I have wrote my name in hell, Brian McFee had said as he was dying on the sawdust of the floor in the Bent Ridge Tavern. ~ James Purdy

Resignations are for Prime Ministers and those caught with their trousers down, not for me. ~ Brian Clough

His crime had been death itself, and he had been sentenced with life. ~ Brian Robert Smith

Last summer was probably the biggest disappointment of my career, but now I have something bad with which to balance the good. I will no longer take anything for granted. ~ Brian O'Driscoll

Successful people love what they do and feel compelled t express the best that is within them. They don't strive to be better than their neighbors or contemporaries they strive to be better than themselves. ~ Brian Souza

This is it?" he asked.
"Yeah," Megan replied.
"Wow. I thought girls were notorious for overpacking."
"I'm not much of a girl," Megan replied.
What? What did you just say?
He looked her up and down and smiled. "Could've fooled me. ~ Kate Brian

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude
toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather
than allowing it to master you. ~ Brian Tracy

Probably though, by the time I was 17, I already knew that I was probably going to go into film ~ Brian Henson

I had grandparents who were native Irish speakers, and also, two of the four grandparents were illiterate. ~ Brian Friel

There is no man so blind as one who has made up his mind. ~ Brian Herbert

California is very much my home, and has been for the last eight yeas. It doesn't matter where I am, the inner me stays the same, home is wherever I happen to be living with Tracey, my companion of the last eighteen years. ~ Brian Williams

I did some writing for that movie. The remake of Planet of the Apes. I didn't write the script. But I wrote some lines that they ended up ... not using ... I wrote one line. I thought it would've been perfect. I don't know if anyone saw the movie. It's the scene where the ape general comes in. And they're trying to decide if they should attack right there, or wait until a little later. And I wrote: "Man these bananas are good!" But they didn't use it. I did all of that research. ~ Brian Regan

You seize your freedom in a spirit of rebelliousness, exuberance, defiant joy. But to live that choice
over the weeks and months and years to come
requires different qualities. It requires that you turn hard, turn rigid. Because it isn't a choice that the world encourages, you have to wear a suit of armor to defend it. ~ Brian Morton

Of his first enemy encounter, Gen. Grant said that after his initial fear, "My heart resumed its place." Grant said he suddenly realized his potential enemy he had been "as much afraid of me as I had been of him. ~ C. Brian Kelly

On sighting mathematicians poetry should unhook the algebra from their minds and replace it with poetry; on sighting poets it should unhook poetry from their minds and replace it with algebra. ~ Brian Patten

More and more I find I want to be living in a Big Here and a Long Now. ~ Brian Eno

Yes, the elections aren't free and fair. Yes, the 'first past the post' system, coupled with delineation of constituencies and gerrymandering, is a problem. ~ Brian Yap

If you wish the devout to ingest poison, wrap it in pomp and seal it with ideology. ~ Brian Rathbone

You know-portraits are odd things." "How do you figure?" I asked. "Well at the time, that portrait told the whole story. It told the truth. We were a family-a happy family. Now that same portrait just looks like a lie. ~ Brian Joyce

Our experience of any painting is always the latest line in a long conversation we've been having with painting. There's no way of looking at art as though you hadn't seen art before. ~ Brian Eno

I have a very strong color theory, for instance, where in Powers, green means powerless, and red means power.The story was all there, but I was desperate to make sure that extra level was the case. ~ Brian Michael Bendis

Every Betrayal begins with trust-Phish
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today-James Dean
Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live-Anonymous ~ Brian Jacques

Lyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that's what the music is about. ~ Brian Eno

All cultures have these feelings about non-functional areas of activity. And the more time people have on their hands, the more they commit it to those areas. ~ Brian Eno

Our greatest enemies are always our own doubts and fears. But there are no limits to what you can do, be, or have except for the limits you place on yourself. ~ Brian Tracy