Stephen Hillenburg

“For me personally, snorkeling in a cove in Hawaii, floating along, and looking at all the animals and the colors - I mean, that's pretty peaceful.”

“I've always been interested in art and making things, but I chose not to go to art school because I thought I needed to do something else. Art was a tough way to make a living.”

“The characters are likable. Even the villainous Plankton - he's still flawed, and you still root for him, in a way, and the style of humor is simple, and it's about human behavior, and everybody can identify with that.”

“I never really imagined a show about a sponge going past our first season. I thought maybe we'd have a cult following, and we'd be gone after one season.”

“I don't want to be the Pied Piper of fast food.”

“SpongeBob is just made of cellulose, but he has parents who are natural sponges - he got the square gene.”

“Obviously, we're never going to say what the Krabby Patty secret formula is.”

“I am an ocean lover and fish watcher and had studied marine biology and even taught marine sciences before I got into animation.”

“I think the source of SpongeBob's humour is classic, and that's always appealing.”

“On TV, it is more efficient to use voice-over people because it is really hard to get celebrity voices to recur in a series.”

“When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can't anticipate this kind of craze. We just try to make ourselves laugh, then ask ourselves if it's appropriate for children.”

“I was into Jacques Cousteau as a kid and started scuba-diving around 14, which blew my mind. It was all colour, another world.”

“I studied natural resources planning and thought I could get a job at some marine park. But I was great at art and so-so at marine biology. It's funny how the two eventually came together.”

“I was just looking at a packet that had SpongeBob thong underwear, so it goes farther than I would imagine.”

“You don't want to work on a job where you're looking at your watch.”

“We're always aiming for storytelling that feels a bit surreal.”

“I studied marine biology, even taught marine science before I got into animation, so I had an interest in that field and those animals.”

“Most sponges in the ocean are sedentary: They attach themselves to a rock and sit and filter-feed the rest of their lives and reproduce, and that's about it. Not that they are not interesting, but they are not that kinetic. They are not mobile. They don't cook Krabbie Patties!”

“When I pitched the show, I made this special seashell. You could pick it up and hear me singing, 'Spongeboy, Spongeboy!' I also made an aquarium with Patrick planted on the side, SpongeBob sitting on a barrel, and Squidward inside. I wore a Hawaiian shirt. I don't know what they thought of it.”

“I never imagined that I'd end up in animation, but marine biology and art collided, and here we are!”