James Bobin

“Muppet films are never easy to film 'cause Muppets have no legs.”

“The Muppets are always really positive when they come across adversity, and they always have the ability to see the good in people.”

“It's a beacon of hope in a dark world. You watch 'The Muppets' and you're smiling for an hour and a half, and then you go outside, and the economy is in crisis.”

“I am a great believer that your humor is developed at a very early age, and it doesn't ever change. You're basically the same person forever, so you find the same stuff funny forever.”

“Lewis Carroll, you see, wasn't really interested in telling an exciting story. Well, he wasn't interested in things like cause and effect or a linear narrative. It's surreal, it's absurd, it's wordplay, it's satirical, it's analyzing itself, it's funny, it's an enormous challenge.”

“Watching 'Dark Crystal' now, having made Muppet films, it really strikes me just how ambitious that film is in terms of the constructs, the builds, the puppeteering.”

“'The Muppets' is really about innocence and charm and sweetness and light and having hope - and stupid gags.”

“I love the idea of exploring the Victorian imagination and what Victorians thought the world of fantasy would look like.”

“Cable news is 24 hours long, so you have to fill it up with something.”

“I've always liked the Muppets. I watched 'The Muppet Show' in England every week as a child. The show was originally broadcast in England.”

“No, the Muppets are not communist. And the character of Tex Richman is not an allegory for capitalism in any way. The character is called Tex Richman.”

“When you try to teach children things, you're trying not necessarily to do it directly.”

“My films have a lot of historical context; I'm a huge fan of ruins. You see a lot of ruin work in my movies, I like ruins.”

“I'm probably an overcompensating introvert. I live in Hollywood, but I don't go to parties where I have to work the room. I could do that, but I don't want to... I try and stay the same and live a fairly normal life.”

“I think, as a director, it's always worth pushing yourself and finding out new areas and exploring new ways to tell story.”

“I'd rather not ever make anything overly simple just because I'm scared people won't get it.”

“I've always thought that Lewis Carroll himself had a certain comedy tinge to him. He was a guy who was a satirist. He really was a social commentator in many ways and was trying to satirize Victorian society.”

“As a director, obviously you should challenge yourself. It's important, because it's this thing that takes you away from your family for years. You have to really love the thing you're doing. It's very important.”

“I remember watching 'The Muppet Show' in the '70s. I was six or seven, and my dad watched it with me, and my grandparents watched it with me, and we're all laughing throughout, but I think we were probably laughing at different things.”

“I've always loved 'Alice,' and I've always loved Lewis Carroll. I love his kind of tone and his intelligence.”