The most expensive habit in the world is celluloid, not heroin, and I need a fix every few years.

All those horrible, traumatic years I spent as a kid became what I draw from creatively today.

Remember, science fiction's always been the kind of first level alert to think about things to come. It's easier for an audience to take warnings from sci-fi without feeling that we're preaching to them. Every science fiction movie I have ever seen, any one that's worth its weight in celluloid, warns us about things that ultimately come true.

Well, luckily with animation, fantasy is your friend.

I've kept the people who've been in my career who I feel are my family. Kathy [Kennedy] had been with me since 1978. Janusz Kaminsky, my cinematographer, has made every movie with me since Schindler's List. Michael Kahn has cut every movie I've directed since 1976 when we made Close Encounters together. Rick Carter has done more than 15 of my directed films as a production designer.

I thought film was more important than life itself for many years. But I was naive to the world until my first child was born in 1985.

I always like to think of the audience when I am directing. Because I am the audience.