I'm the first to admit that I can't be as good as Tolkien, and a movie can never be as good as Tolkien.

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.

I think the country's getting disgusted with Washington partly because of the decline of civility in government.

Frozen in fear, you avoid responsibility because you think your experience is beyond your control. This stance keeps you from making decisions, solving problems, or going after what you want in life.

A rut is a grave with the ends kicked out.

Cats have a contempt of speech. Why should they talk when they can communicate without words?

I've always felt those articles somehow reveal more about the writers than they do about me.

Loneliness Is Not The Absence Of Affection, But The Absence Of Direction.

You know if you pick up a beach read, you're excused from the problems in your own life and safe in a world with conflicts you understand, and you know you will get a happy ending.

A couple of flop plays, a death in the family, and it could all collapse.

I look forward to the end of all this money-making part of the career, to be truthful.

The majority of a society is the true definition of the public.