Actually, I began to think that maybe there is a god, after all. Or maybe its a different one. The old one got fired.
I'm more prone to anarchy than I am to control - even though I'm a film director.
I like being a patron of things, I like patronizing things. And if it's not going to be people, I'll patronize a festival.
There are moments when television systems are young and haven't formed properly, and there's room for lots of original stuff. Then things become more and more top-heavy with executives who are trying to guarantee the success of things.
My problem is I'm like a junkie. I want a good movie fix, and I never get that fix.
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.
Literally overnight, I became an animator... and one that was well-known.
They all sort of get mixed up in my head, to be quite honest. They're all dealing with similar things. It's about how you deal with reality, by ignoring it sometimes, reinventing it other times, and that's how you get through it.
The more money you have to work with, the more people you have to deal with that you probably don't want to be spending time dealing with.
I think that's the problem with kids now. Everything is manufactured. And then they're sitting there watching the television, where all the work is done for them. Radio made me use my imagination.
The whole point of animation to me is to tell a story, make a joke, express an idea. The technique itself doesn't really matter. Whatever works is the thing to use.
There was a perverse side of me, with things like Van Helsing coming out. I didn't want to go down that route.
The success of the Hollywood marketing machine is to limit what we see. Not just to limit what we can see, but also to limit our expectations - to limit what we want to see.
I was born in 1940 in Minnesota and grew up in the country... dirt roads, swamps, lakes, woods.
I got my head bashed in at a demonstration against the Vietnam War. Police were losing control because they were up against a world they really didn't understand.
I think it's worse for actors, though, because people have to choose you. As a director, I get to choose the actors, but most of the time, actors have to be chosen in order to work.
You know the hardest thing to do in Hollywood is burn bridges. There is usually some sucker who still likes me. There is usually some sucker who will still work with me.
I never define depression, clinical or otherwise. It's the basis of most life, it seems to me, in the modern world. We're all depressed.
Now, anybody can make a movie, and I don't see that many great movies, because I think there's only a limited amount of talent out there.
When it came to slaughtering sacred cows with such crude yet perfect musical precision, there was no one better than Frank. I wonder what songs he's teaching the angels right now? Good luck God! You've got your hands full this time.
I got tired of my taxes paying for exciting little wars around the world. Then I discovered that when I died, my wife would probably have to sell our house to pay for the taxes in America.
In advertising, I was frustrated by having to deal with the client. It was the only time I really worked in a proper office, and I didn't like it-simple as that.
The English are such a frightened, nervous, insecure group of people - they no longer rule the world!
I wasn't creative or theatrical. I was just doing everything. I was head cheerleader, valedictorian - it was ridiculous!
