I had the X rating on my films. Now they do as much on The Simpsons as I got an X rating for Fritz the Cat.

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.

What are memories but photo images from the mind? Isn't the human mind so much like a camera, saving pictures every now and then?

It’s not the people you fire who make your life miserable. It’s the people you don’t.

The unhappy are egotistical, base, unjust, cruel, and even less capable of understanding one another than are idiots. Unhappinessdoes not unite people, but separates them.

People usually don't allow you to cut off their tongue.

the old ploy of the powerful: never refuse when you can confuse. Distraction and delay are always better than obstruction.

I've read a lot of bad books. I used to review books for a living, and when you're a reviewer you read tons of terrible books.

Most films seem to be about a man and a women falling in love at some point and once you pass forty-five, it's almost disgusting to fall in love.

I had the blood and fire rule when my boys were young. You know, unless it's blood or fire, don't bother me.

There is a window between heart and heart: They are never separate like two bodies. Two lamps may not be united in their form - But their light merges into each other.

The truly beautiful are often abused for apparent ugliness just as those with great vision often bump into things.