Invariably, what I'm trying to do is more ambitious than the budget, but we manage to do it somehow.

I was born in 1940 in Minnesota and grew up in the country... dirt roads, swamps, lakes, woods.

I've given up asking questions. l merely float on a tsunami of acceptance of anything life throws at me ... and marvel stupidly.

I just like the fact I can make a film which might give comfort to some people who think they are the only crazy person in the world and suddenly they see there are two crazy people in the world.

I was doing political cartoons and getting angry to the point where I felt I was going to have to start making and throwing bombs. I thought I was probably a better cartoonist than a bomb maker.

John Cleese was with a group called Cambridge Circus, who had come to New York, and we became friends. Years later that produced a certain team effort.

I don't think you ever learn just one thing. At some point you start unlearning things. I have been working hard to unlearn everything I know.

You get trapped by stories. Though I've got this reputation for being out of control, it's not true, it just happens to be a more interesting story than the truth.

I was an incredible Anglophile. I found people who shared the same sense of humor and attitude toward the world.

Literally overnight, I became an animator... and one that was well-known.

Because I dislike being quoted I lie almost constantly when talking about my work.

The attempt to interpret human behavior in terms of models derived from the natural sciences eventually destroys personal responsibility.

Our democracy poses problems and these problems must and shall be solved by courageous leadership.

Civilized countries generally adopt gold or silver or both as money.

Time is a great ocean which, like the other ocean, overflows with our remains.

To become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.

It doesn't matter where anybody lives, we're all here.

Life is hard and it gets worse and worse and worse.

Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.

I am a very frank person and that's how I hope to remain. I don't like to pretend to be polite. What you see is what you get.

You don't smoke do you?" "No, why?" "They're afraid of fire." "Great, we're going to be eaten alive because neither of us smokes." I almost laughed. He sounded so thoroughly disgusted.