Every character in each of my movies is a different side of myself.

What's most important in animation is the emotions and the ideas being portrayed. I'm a great believer of energy and emotion.

Animation is tremendously resilient. Animation will recover, as art always recovers. There's always cycles of good art.

As an artist, I want to interpret my feelings - not run across the street and ask what my mother thinks.

As an artist, I want to interpret my feelings

I would like to have the original ending to my Lord of the Rings instead of the one they released. In my original cut I had the victory at Helm's Deep as the final sequence.

Disney had such a hold on the mind of America-they were Adolf Hitler. The whole country thought Disney was some sort of god and that animation was some sort of pure thing for children.

Look what Disney's done to their animation department. There wasn't an animator in charge of their animation unit!

All the old great companies were run by guys who knew what an animator meant, and guys who knew how to draw. All the companies today are run by executives.

The rise of anime had to happen. If the Japanese could tell better American stories, it would go through the roof. They still tell stories which are very much oriental. I take my hat off to them.

I draw what I feel, which is no more than doing my job.

A smart person is not one that knows the answers, but one who knows where to find them...

The Function of Leadership is to produce more Leaders, Not more Followers.

..why sit on the sidelines of life at any age?

DJ culture always made us aware that the best records were going to come from the small shops

You write a book like that you're fond of over the years, then you see that happen to it, it's like pissing in your father's beer.

When your life becomes clear and pure, when your mind is clear and your view of life is unobstructed, then you'll be at peace with yourself. Then you will be happy.

A letter, timely writ, is a rivet to the chain of affection; And a letter, untimely delayed, is as rust to the solder.

Always look forward and try to push pass the negativity. I think everyone's beautiful and they deserve to be happy no matter what.

Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him.

I was a garbage man in New Jersey in summers during college at Yale. Everybody else got to go to Switzerland and I got to go to the dump.