Quotes from Genndy Tartakovsky

You can't have a beauty scene for beauty's sake.

I've done a lot of dance sequences because I like them; I like to animate dancing because it's fun and visual.

For me, I'm not a great wordsmith, and so maybe from lack of great dialogue writing, I thought it's easier and better to express a story through visuals.

There are so many sitcoms, especially in animation, that we've almost forgotten what animation was about - movement and visuals.

Being funny is very complex.

There's nothing like watching hand-drawn animation on the big screen.

Boarding for me, like in the days of 'Dexter,' was really hard, because I couldn't draw as well, and I had people around me who drew really well, so it was hard.

TV is all about schedule and budget, and you're always fighting that.

I've always thought that maybe I need to do a live-action movie, have it make a lot of money, and then come back and have a bigger budget for animation and do more with that.

I'm not as articulate as I'd wanna be.

A good cartoon is always good on two or three levels: surface physical comedy, some intellectual stuff - like Warner Brothers cartoons' pop-culture jokes, gas-rationing jokes during the war - and then the overall character appeal.

I don't like to be part of the cattle. I like to just do my own thing.

I don't like darkness in everything. I like my superheroes in primary colors, and fun.

I've always felt that kids are a lot smarter than we've given them credit for, but we've never given them a chance to figure things out as they're watching television.

There's a lot of comic book inspiration and stuff I do that people probably won't recognize. I grew up in the '70s, so there's a lot of little things, like 'Three's Company' and 'Gilligan's Island.' Those shows were the foundation of my comedy in a way.

I had done it all in my career. I always felt, as a kid, that that's what a director needed to be. Hitchcock could do anything in my mind. He's the director. That person has to be the best actor, the best designer, the best cinematographer. Then I came to realize that isn't the case. You just need to surround yourself with the best.

The one amazing thing about 'Jack' is that I did it in 2001, you know, and it still survived. There's something about it that's connected with people.

I'm not sure comics sustain mortgage, and the house, and three kids.

Jack' came from... I had the same dream since I was 10, about the world being destroyed and run by mutants. I'd find a samurai sword, pick up the girl I had a crush on, and we'd go through the land, surviving. That was the initial spark to 'Samurai Jack.'

I love to have contrast.

In feature animation, cartoony or exaggerated animation is almost taboo. There is this precedent that if you do that kind of stuff people won't like it or it will be too zany.

In feature animation, it's kind of taboo to make a movie that's more cartoony. But I never really believed that.

I've always been in love with samurais, that kind of classic idea about a hero who has a sword with an intense skill and is very stoic and doesn't talk much.

I really loved that old UPA stuff, like 'Gerald McBoing-Boing' and 'Mr. Magoo.' They were simple yet effective 'toons that talked to everyone, not just kids.