Lord of the Rings made me realize that I'm not interested in doing anyone else's work.

I had the X rating on my films. Now they do as much on The Simpsons as I got an X rating for Fritz the Cat.

Too many of Disney animators, and a lot try to emulate Disney, are trying to hit what they call quality levels. They're boring mannerisms.

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

As an artist, I want to interpret my feelings

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 separate cartooning, which is fun and wacky and soulful, from illustration, which is very well-drawn and extremely uptight to look at. There's a difference. I'm a cartoonist.