Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.

Animators can only draw from their own experiences of pain and shock and emotions.

The characters are born from repetition, from repeatedly thinking about them. I have their outline in my head. I become the character and as the character I visit the locations of the story many, many times. Only after that I start drawing the character, but again I do it many, many times, over and over. And I only finish just before the deadline.

We live in an age when it is cheaper to buy the rights to movies than to make them.

I’d like to see Manhattan underwater. I’d like to see when the human population plummets and there are no more high rises, because nobody’s buying them. I’m excited about that. Money and desire—all that is going to collapse, and wild green grasses are going to take over.

I myself become terrified of death when I am in a negative state of mind. But the thought of death ceases to bother me once I become productive.

The principle I adhere to when directing, is that I make good use of everything my staff creates. Even if they make foregrounds that don't quite fit with my backgrounds, I never waste it and try to find the best use for it.