Top 50 Brian Selznick Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”

— Brian Selznick

2. “I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are the true dreamers.”

— Brian Selznick

3. “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

4. “Maybe we are all cabinets of wonders.”

— Brian Selznick

5. “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

6. “You either see it or you don’t.”

— Brian Selznick

7. “Even a broken watch is correct twice a day.”

— Brian Selznick

8. “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

9. “I hope the snow covers everything so all the footsteps are silenced, and the whole city can be at peace.”

— Brian Selznick

10. “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

11. “Ben remembered reading about curators in “Wonderstruck”, and thought about what id meant to curate your own life, as his dad had done here. What would it be like to pick and choose the objects and stories that would go in your own cabinet? How would Ben curate his own life? And then, thinking about his museum box, and his house, and his books, and the secret room, he realized he’d already begun doing it. Maybe, thought Ben, we are all cabinets of wonders.”

— Brian Selznick

12. “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

13. “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

14. “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

15. “My house had suddenly turned into a hospital ward.”

— Brian Selznick

16. “Like a mermaid rising from an ocean of paper, the girl emerged across the room.”

— Brian Selznick

17. “He wished he was with his mom in her library, where everything was safe and numbered and organized by the Dewey decimal system. Ben wished the world was organized by the Dewey decimal system. That way you’d be able to find whatever you were looking for, like the meaning of your dream, or your dad.”

— Brian Selznick

18. “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

19. “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

20. “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

21. “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

22. “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

23. “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

24. “A museum is an institution like a library where everything has a place, everything belongs.”

— Brian Selznick

25. “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

26. “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

27. “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.”

— Brian Selznick

28. “Albert shrugged, but Joseph could sense a world of things his uncle wasn’t saying.”

— Brian Selznick

29. “The idea of going to the movies made Hugo remember something Father had once told him about going to the movies when he was just a boy, when the movies were new. Hugo’s father had stepped into a dark room, and on a white screen he had seen a rocket fly right into the eye of the man in the moon. Father said he had never experienced anything like it. It had been like seeing his dreams in the middle of the day.”

— Brian Selznick

30. “Maybe time is like that insect,” Blink said, “trapped beneath the crystal of your watch.”

— Brian Selznick

31. “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

32. “Albert casually tossed everything back into the water. “Walking along the shore here is like walking on history,” he said. “It’s like walking on an endless catalogue of lost 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

33. “Maybe the play wasn’t about miracles. No, maybe it was about the passage of time, and the need for patience, and the ability to forgive. Maybe Shakespeare was saying that even in a world where miracles can happen, there’s still going to be pain, and loss, and regret. Because sometimes people die and you can’t bring them back. That’s what life is Joseph realized, miracles and sadness, side by side.”

— Brian Selznick

34. “Did you ever notice that all machines are made for some reason?′ He asked Isabelle. ‘They are built to make 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 meant to do.”

— Brian Selznick

35. “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

Featured in: Reading Quotes

36. “You can make up your own story when you look at a photo.”

— Brian Selznick

37. “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

38. “What would it be like to pick and choose the objects and stories that would go into your own cabinet?”

— Brian Selznick

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

— Brian Selznick

40. “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

41. “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

42. “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

43. “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

44. “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

45. “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

46. “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

47. “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

48. “It’s fun to see how other artists adapt my work.”

— Brian Selznick

49. “I like the pages to turn. I like the bookness of the book.”

— Brian Selznick

50. “El mundo estaba lleno de maravillas.”

— Brian Selznick