Tim Burton

“I did some sports. It was a bit frustrating. I wasn't the greatest sports person.”

“One person's crazyness is another person's reality.”

“It's good as an artist to always remember to see things in a new, weird way.”

“Things like 'mad as a hatter' or 'grinning like a Cheshire cat', are so powerful that music and songs incorporate the imagery. Writers, artists, illustrators, a lot of them have incorporated that.”

“I've always been misrepresented. You know, I could dress in a clown costume and laugh with the happy people but they'd still say I'm a dark personality.”

“Visions are worth fighting for. Why spend your life making someone else's dreams?”

“When I went to Warner Bros., there was a woman named Bonnie Lee who was an executive who helped me to get to 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure.'”

“It was a weird reaction to 'Batman Returns,' because half the people thought it was lighter than the first one, and half the people thought it was darker. I think the studio just thought it was too weird - they wanted to go with something more child- or family-friendly. In other words, they didn't want me to do another one.”

“When people are deprived of a sense, their other senses get heightened. If you're culturally devoid of something - of weather, of artistry, of interesting architecture, all the way down the line to culture itself - you're either forced to give in and get that car dealership, or you manufacture those things for yourself.”

“When I was growing up, Dr. Seuss was really my favorite. There was something about the lyrical nature and the simplicity of his work that really hit me.”

“Things that I grew up with stay with me. You start a certain way, and then you spend your whole life trying to find a certain simplicity that you had. It's less about staying in childhood than keeping a certain spirit of seeing things in a different way.”

“There's something quite exciting when you have a history with somebody and you see them do new and different things.”

“You don't know whether chimps are going to kill you or kiss you. They're very open on some levels and much more evil in a certain way.”

“I am not a dark person and I don't consider myself dark.”

“To be honest, whatever troubles I've had, I've also gotten the opportunities to do things.”

“I remember early in my career with Disney, which was a very strange time in the company - there were a couple of executives who were very supportive of me and kind of let me do my own thing.”

“I wouldn't know a good script if it bit me in the face.”

“I am not a big technology person. I don't go on the Internet really much at all. Drawing is like a zen thing; it's private, which in this day and age is harder to come by.”

“Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you. And that's why we're all interested in movies- those ones that make you feel, you still think about. Because it gave you such an emotional response, it's actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.”

“One person's craziness is another person's reality.”