Edwin Catmull

“For me, the work we did to turn around 'Toy Story 2' was the defining moment in Pixar's history.”

“It is only by trying new things that we can hope to create products that are original. Don't just say those words; act like you believe them.”

“We need to remember we're always a lot more wrong than we think.”

“The trick is, in everything we do, there are things we love. And sometimes the things we love get us stuck. And it's only if we let go of some of those things that we free the movie up to become greater.”

“One reason for keeping Disney animation separate from Pixar was that by solving their own problems when they finished a film, Disney could say, 'Nobody bailed us out; we did it.' And it's a very important social thing for them to do that.”

“As I look back on my career, I had a goal, which was to build the first feature computer-animated film.”

“When you take a director off a project, that makes a person feel humiliated because everyone knows it. But we're responsible because we put them in that position.”

“Creativity has to start somewhere, and we are true believers in the power of bracing, candid feedback, and the iterative process - reworking, reworking, and reworking again until a flawed story finds its through line or a hollow character finds its soul.”

“Every one of our films, when we start off, they suck... our job is to take it from something that sucks to something that doesn't suck. That's the hard part.”

“Lucasfilm has always had an openness to technology.”

“While problems in a film are fairly easy to identify, the sources of those problems are often extraordinarily difficult to assess. A mystifying plot twist or a less-than-credible change of heart in our main character is often caused by subtle underlying issues elsewhere in the story.”

“A hallmark of a healthy creative culture is that its people feel free to share ideas, opinions, and criticisms. Our decision-making is better when we draw on the collective knowledge and unvarnished opinions of the group.”

“I don't think most of our films should be realistic, but you want that as an artistic possibility. Then, the artist can take the realism of the world and push it in ways that we can connect with.”

“Linear narrative is an artfully-directed telling of a story, where the lighting and the sound is all for a very clear purpose. You're not just wandering around in the world.”

“When companies are successful or not successful, they almost immediately jump to the wrong conclusions about how they got there or why they got there.”

“If you put out 20 films, you hope that a number are successful. It's like human reproduction versus frog reproduction. Frogs produce thousands and hope a few succeed. Humans don't produce many babies but put a lot of energy into them, which is kind of where we are. They still don't always succeed, but you try a lot harder.”

“Everything's interconnected. That's the way life is.”

“People say they want to be in risky environments and do all kinds of exciting stuff. But they don't actually know what risk means: that risk actually does bring failure and mistakes.”

“When I see a film, I'll remember that there was a time when it wasn't working, and there was some pain and angst in order to get it to work.”

“Believe me, sequels are just as hard to make as original films.”