Sweetheart, I'm the biggest ripped-off cartoonist in the history of the world, and that's all I'm going to say.

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.

Live action writers will give you a structure, but who the hell is talking about structure? Animation is closer to jazz than some kind of classical stage structure.

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

Lord of the Rings made me realize that I'm not interested in doing anyone else's work.

Most of the animated films I watched, the emotions are all prepackaged like canned music, the hand actions, the sighs.

My movies continue to be found and be sold because there's something going on in them.

I'm having the same problems today that I had when I first started, saying that outrageous adult animation works.

Painting pictures didn't make me a lot of money. I have to eat.

I miss animation very passionately. Not continuously, but every once in a while I would die to do another film.

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.

They say I'm a revolutionary, but they're all wrong.

Too many of Disney animators, and a lot try to emulate Disney, are trying to hit what they call quality levels. They're boring mannerisms.

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

One of the best animated films I've seen come out of Disney was the Tarzan movie. I wasn't crazy about the story or the design on Tarzan's face, but the traditional animation was spectacular.