John Lasseter

“The way the films look will never entertain an audience alone. It has to be in the service of a good story with great characters.”

“The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.”

“Of all studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney.”

“I always laugh at these companies that have these rules saying, 'You're only allowed to have this or that on your desk.' It's no fun to work at a place like that.”

“My father pulled into Pearl Harbor four days after the bombing, and he said, everything was still burning. He said they never told the public how bad it was. It was really bad.”

“I do what I do because of Walt Disney. Goofy. Mickey Mouse. I never forgot how their films entertained me.”

“Sure, they were simple desk lamps with only a minimal amount of movement, but you could immediately tell that Luxo Jr. was a baby, and that the big one was his mother. In that short little film, computer animation went from a novelty to a serious tool for filmmaking.”

“We make the kind of movies we like to watch. I love to laugh. I love to be amazed by how beautiful it is. But I also love to be moved to tears. There's lots of heart in our films.”

“Probably more than any other movie we've made here at Pixar, 'Up' was the one we were the most nervous about.”

“I think that as I had children, I have five sons, and they got into video games and were the prime ages through the development of video games. It was so much fun seeing them play the games and seeing it through their eyes.”

“We use shorts at the studio extensively to develop talent. I always love to give opportunities for young story people, animators, layout people something like that to take the next step up in their career and try things out.”

“Pixar has been compared to fine furniture makers who polish the backs of drawers - even if you don't see everything in a particular scene, you still feel that every little detail has been met.”

“I am, by nature, an honest person. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. There is no 'behind closed doors' with me.”

“When Walt Disney was making his films, he trusted his instincts and made films for himself, but they appealed to everybody, not just kids.”

“I was born in 1957, so when I was a kid, there wasn't anything called a video game. When 'Pong' came out, it was awesome.”

“I never quite understood why Disney hadn't made a sincere fairy tale since 'Beauty and the Beast.'”

“At Pixar, 'Wall-E' was our ninth film, and they've all been successes - more than that, they've all really touched people. Everybody wonders, 'How do you do it?' Well, how do you not do it? You just work hard.”

“Steve Jobs is like a brother to me and he's one of the founders of Pixar, and when the first iPad came out, I got one right away.”

“I'm a big Disneyland nut.”

“When I was a freshman in high school, I read a book about the making of Disney's 'Sleeping Beauty' called 'The Art of Animation.' It was this weird revelation for me, because I hadn't considered that people actually get paid to make cartoons.”