Brian Selznick quotes

I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers. (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
In that moment, the machinery of the world lined up. Somewhere a clock struck midnight, and Hugo's future seemed to fall perfectly into place.
Brian Selznick
Maybe, thought Ben, we are all cabinets of wonders.
Brian Selznick
You can make up your own story when you look at a photo.
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
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 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 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 hope the snow covers everything so all the footsteps are silenced, and the whole city can be at peace.
Brian Selznick
Well, everything surprises me about the writing process because illustrating comes much more naturally to me than writing does. (Brian Selznick)
Even if all the clocks in the station break down, thought Hugo, time won't stop. Not even if you really want it to. Like now.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
Brian Selznick
Like a mermaid rising from an ocean of paper, the girl emerged across the room.
Brian Selznick
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
Fairy tales only happen in movies." -George Melies from The Invention of Hugo Cabret. (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 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
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.
Brian Selznick
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