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.

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!

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.

Cartooning at its best is a fine art. I'm a cartoonist who works in the medium of animation, which also allows me to paint my cartoons.

I'm a father. It isn't just my life any more. I don't want my kid finding bottles in the house or seeing his father completely smashed.

I play harder when my family is watching.

I shall create! If not a note, a hole./If not an overture, a desecration.

I suffer from a spiritual malaise which manifests itself in outbursts of vicious rage.

Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it.

The United States will do whatever we have to do to protect our forces.

You have to see every potential roadblock as an opportunity and a benefit.

Patience obtains everything.

The most time I spent home in 2009 was about a month.

I love working with smart-funny people.