Chuck Jones Quotes

Bugs is who we want to be. Daffy is who we are.

The close-up, according to D.W. Griffith, allows subtle changes of facial expression-the raising of an eyebrow or the flicker of a smile-to become part of the action.

The name 'Chuck Jones', according to my uncle, limited my choice of profession to second baseman or cartoonist.

Eschew the ordinary, disdain the commonplace

I have come to know Bugs so well that I no longer have to think about what he is doing in any situation. I let the part of me that is Bugs come to the surface, knowing, with regret, that I can never match his marvelous confidence.

Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter.

The older I get, the more individuality I find in animals and the less I find in humans.

Fog and smog should not be confused and are easily separated by color.

An idea has no worth at all without believable characters to implement it; a plot without characters is like a tennis court without players. Daffy Duck is to a Buck Rogers story what John McEnroe was to tennis. Personality. That is the key, the drum, the fife. Forget the plot.

If you start with character, you probably will end up with good drawings.

When a young artist asked me for advice on drawing the human foot, I told him, ‘The first thing you must learn is how to take your shoe off, and then how to take your sock off, then prop your leg up carefully on your other knee, take a piece of paper, and draw your foot.’

Disney was not a good animator, he didn't draw well at all, but he was always a great idea man, and a good writer.

Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out.

Early experiences convinced me that animals can and do have quite distinct personalities.

Every great artist must begin by learning to draw with the single line, and my advice to young animators is to learn how to live with that razor-sharp instrument or art. An artist who comes to me with eight or ten good drawings of the human figure in simple lines has a good chance of being hired. But I will tell the artist who comes with a bunch of drawings of Bugs Bunny to go back and learn how to draw the human body. An artist who knows that can learn how to draw ANYTHING, including Bugs Bunny.

Anyone can negatively criticize - it is the cheapest of all comment because it requires not a modicum of the effort that suggestion requires.

Eschew the ordinary, disdain the commonplace. If you have a single-minded need for something, let it be the unusual, the esoteric, the bizarre, the unexpected.

You've got a million bad drawings in you; you better get started.

Dell is to a degree in the penalty box because expectations and probable results have gotten ratcheted down.

I started reading when I was about three, a little over three.

A comedian is not a person who opens a funny door - he's the person who opens a door funny.

You do not 'suffer' if you decide 'that's the way it is' rather than 'why is it this way?'

All of you here have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone.

When critics sit in judgment it is hard to tell where justice leaves off and vengeance begins.

Often Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity.

As you become acquainted with a character you are creating, you add parts of yourself that are pertinent to that character.

The weatherman is not only blamed for his failure to foretell, he is blamed for the weather itself.

The whole essence of good drawing - and of good thinking, perhaps - is to work a subject down to the simplest form possible and still have it believable for what it is meant to be.

Mark Twain's Roughing It is a book that many people don't know about, but I highly recommend to anybody at any age.

You can't force inspiration. It's like trying to catch a butterfly with a hoop but no net. If you keep your mind open and receptive, though, one day a butterfly will land on your finger.

Fog and smog should not be confused and are easily separated by color. Fog is about the color of the insides of an old split wet summer cottage mattress; smog is the color and consistency of a wet potato chip soaked in a motorman’s glove.

If you make a fool of yourself in front of a cat, he will sneer at you, if you are sober; he will leave the room if you are drunk. If you make a fool of yourself in front a dog, he will make a fool of himself, too.

We must not confuse distortion with innovation; distortion is useless change, art is beneficial change.

Well, directing is doing the key drawings, not the key animation, mind you.

The road is better than the inn.

In 1918, when I was 6 or 7 years old, radio was just coming into use in the Great War.

If you want a midget to look like a baby, don’t put a cigar in his mouth.

There's only one test of a great children's book, or a great children's film, and that is this: If it can be read or viewed with pleasure by adults, then it has the chance to be a great children's film, or a great children's book.

Once you have heard a strange audience burst into laughter at a film you directed, you realize what the word joy is all about.

Human beings will line up for miles to buy a bucket of catastrophes, but don't try selling sunshine and light - you'll go broke.

Painting does what we cannot do—it brings a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional plane.

I have to think as Bugs Bunny, not of Bugs Bunny.

The rules are simple. Take your work, but never yourself, seriously. Pour in the love and whatever skill you have, and it will come out.

Artists don't need criticism, artists need love

A lion's work hours are only when he's hungry; once he's satisfied, the predator and prey live peacefully together.

I'm still astonished that somebody would offer me a job and pay me to do what I wanted to do.

Animation means to invoke life, not to imitate it.

All worthwhile endeavors are 90% work and 10% love, and only the love should show.