I love the creation of these things — I love the sculpting, I love the coloring. Half the joy is fabricating the world, the creatures.

There's something worse than not making a movie. It's doing it for the wrong reasons. Then you end up putting three, four, five years of your life into it and you come out with a thing that you're not proud of.

If you're doing a big spectacle film, you've got to be mindful of large masses. Even then, you've got to be responsible only to your storytelling.

Never fly commercial. That's the moral of this story.

I have a sort of a fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things

When I was a teenager there was no video in my country. Betamax came to Mexico very slowly.

I have "fat-guy syndrome." If they give me $50 million to make a movie, I'll try to make it look like it cost a hundred. If they give me $60 million, I'll try to make it look like it cost $120.