I hired Bob at Terrytoons. He was my assistant animator, and then became an animator himself. He had just come from Boston with his family and was a brilliant draftsman as well as a great jazz guitarist. We had lots of fun nights in Greenwich Village together and then later hanging in LA. Bob worked on Fritz the Cat , Heavy Traffic , Coonskin , and on Wizards . I am terribly saddened by his passing and will miss him dearly.

I miss animation very passionately. Not continuously, but every once in a while I would die to do another film.

It's curtains for you, Mighty Mouse! This gun is so futuristic that even I don't know how it works!

John [Kricfalusi] is so arrogant. He thinks he's me!

All the old great companies were run by guys who knew what an animator meant, and guys who knew how to draw. All the companies today are run by executives.

I'm the first to admit that I can't be as good as Tolkien, and a movie can never be as good as Tolkien.

Wizards was my homage to Tolkien in the American idiom. I had read Tolkien, understood Tolkien, and wanted to do a sort of fantasy for American kids, and that was Wizards.