Lee Unkrich

“We go to movies to be taken away to another place, to be dazzled, to dream, to hopefully be filled with wonder. The design of the world and the look of the film is all in service of trying to create that feeling of wonder in the audience.”

“Any of us directing at Pixar, whether it's our first time or not, feel a lot of pressure to not make a bad Pixar film.”

“When you think about it, the most important thing to a toy is to be played with by a child, and anything that keeps them from being played with gives them stress - things like getting lost, getting broken.”

“I'm lucky to be surrounded by incredibly talented people at Pixar, of course, and I learn a lot from them each and every day.”

“In the earliest days of Pixar, when we were making 'Toy Story' and 'A Bug's Life,' we all came together as a group.”

“Going through the Chagrin Falls school system, I always thought I was going off to art school.”

“It wasn't the first film to show a kind of alternate vision of suburbia, but it left an indelible impression, I think, on everybody, and all films like that will forever be measured against 'Blue Velvet.'”

“I think the moment you try to make something for kids, you are making something really cruddy that even kids don't want to watch most of the time.”

“For anyone who's had a transition in their life - heading off to college, parents sending their kids off to college, people getting out of college and heading off into the workforce. Those are major transitions.”

“I just ended up focusing on film editing as I was getting my career started. I'm very passionate about editing and will continue to edit for the rest of my career, but it's not like that was all I did and then somehow I grew into directing a movie.”

“I saw a lot of movies that I probably shouldn't have seen. I saw 'Dog Day Afternoon' when I was in first grade - that kind of thing.”

“When people think of Mexican music, they most often think of mariachi, and that, of course, is one part.”

“I did direct quite a bit when I was in school, and I directed some television afterwards.”

“I know I'm going to send my three kids off to college someday. I know my parents will pass away someday. It's one thing to say, 'I'll be able to deal with that day when it comes,' and it's another thing to find yourself at that day, dealing with it.”

“I really personalized the pressure to make a good 'Toy Story' film. It made me physically sick at the beginning. Literally, I wanted to throw up in the morning because I was just so racked with stress.”

“People talk a lot about Pixar going off the rails. A lot of people are saying they aren't happy that we are making sequels. But for every one of those people, there is one that is happy because they fell in love with the worlds we created. We hope we've proved that a sequel can be every bit as enjoyable as the original.”

“People loved the first two 'Toy Story' films so much, and the last thing I wanted to do was make a disappointing third film.”

“If you ask any of us which movie we were making when one of our kids was born, we'll be able to tell you instantly. It's like our family lives are permanently woven into the movies.”

“When I was around 12 or so, I saw 'The Shining.' I just remember that being a turning point for me, where I started to think about the fact that there was a hand behind the film. That it wasn't just this magical story being told - there were actual people crafting these films, and they were works of art.”

“I love that people are still obsessively trying to understand and decode 'The Shining.' People want to find meaning in things that seemingly don't have meaning on the surface.”