Quotes from Travis Knight

We respect that children are smart, sophisticated and can handle things that adults typically don't think they can.

I just love what art can do and what it means for us; that it can cross barriers. It can speak to us across space and time and culture.

In some ways we describe 'Boxtrolls' as 'Oliver Twist' if Terry Gilliam had made it. I think he's an extraordinary artist, and animator.

I love 'Spirited Away,' that's a huge one.

I think there's an unfortunate thing where a lot of content geared towards kids and families is watered down, dumbed down.

A fundamental and unfortunate part of being alive is to suffer loss and to suffer grief.

I know I have exacting standards.

Artists are neurotic and hypersensitive, and they tend to focus on granular details, sometimes at the expense of the big picture. I've gotten better at the big picture over the years.

When we started on 'Coraline,' there was a whole host of things that we had no idea how we were going to do. Because we were making films in a way that had never really been done before, we were taking this hundred-year-old art form and bringing it into a new era by embracing technology and innovation.

My brother and I had unresolved things. I just wish I could have had one final conversation with him.

The interesting thing about Laika is that it's very much an island of misfit toys. It's unusual people with strange talents and very unusual passions who have somehow found each other.

If you can connect with the audience emotionally, that's potent storytelling.

We live in world that wants to burnish the rough edges and straighten the crooked line, but conformity doesn't beget greatness.

It took me five years to make 'Kubo and the Two Strings.'

Laika's films aim to promote thought, feeling, and connectivity through art, inspired by our shared humanity. We're deeply gratified that the spirit of our work has resonated so strongly with audiences around the world.

No TV show has meant more to me than 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'

When I became a father, I saw what passed for family entertainment. So much of it was vapid. I wanted to make things that mattered.

One of the things my dad told me when I was growing up was, 'Find your calling. Find what you're meant to do.' When I found animation, I knew this was it.

Stop-motion is sort of the redheaded stepchild of animation. But it's incredibly beautiful.

All of the things we learned on 'Coraline' we applied to 'ParaNorman,' and all of the things we learned on 'ParaNorman' and 'Coraline' we applied to 'The Boxtrolls.'

I think any artist wants their artist to be seen and appreciated and enjoyed by as many people as possible.

One of the other things that I love about Miyazaki's films, is that when he sets a film in Europe, it's not a documentary - it doesn't really look like Europe, but it's something he internalises, synthesises and weaves into his work. I love seeing that cross-cultural exchange.