Gromit was the name of a cat. When I started modeling the cat I just didn't feel it was quite right, so I made it into a dog because he could have a bigger nose and bigger, longer legs.

I always considered Ray Harryhausen's work so fine that it was way out of my league: in terms of realism and naturalism, in terms of animal movement.

My father, an architectural photographer, was an incurable tinkerer, maker and mender.

We have to look forward and keep filming new films and not get stuck in the past.

I'm always there at home thinking of Wallace and Gromit ideas.

There is something about the Australian psyche that seems to like films that are slightly offbeat.

Like my father, I would never as a child throw anything away, keeping old toys, electric motors and bits of broken machines under my bed in what I called my Box of Useful Things.