Quotes from Brad Bird

For me, I try as much as possible to just think about being in the movie theatre, having the lights dim, and what would I want to see on the screen. That puts me in the frame of mind that made me want to be in the movie business to begin with.

Every movie, I find myself adrift at the beginning of the movie, and then I find my way through the dark forest.

I had about the biggest, longest wish list anyone could have, and 99 percent of what I wanted to get on the screen we got on the screen within our schedule and within our budget and within our resources.

I see Walt Disney as kind of the epitome of a dreamer. He was a very forward thinker.

If there are similarities, it's simply because the same thoughts that occurred to other people also occurred to me. I'd be astonished if anyone could come up with any truly original powers that were at all interesting any more.

Well I'm still working on The Incredibles. So I'm going to take a little time off. I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve. I'm not ready to talk about them yet, but expect the unexpected.

I was not a big comic-book reader.

Without naming names, I think other movies look more realistic but they feel less real.

Every time I started going in the direction of thinking how it might turn out, I started to just turn my brain around and not go there, because I think the surest way to guarantee that you won't win is to assume that you will.

The problem is that every time people have deviated from the Disney playbook in hand-drawn animation, they've done so with staff that are nowhere near Disney-level talent or Disney-level budgets.

My kids love anime, but I don't show them the really graphic stuff

Oh yeah, I'm still employed at Pixar and I love it here.

I think it's the most extraordinary studio around. I would love to do my next project with Pixar.

You have to be emotionally attached to what you are doing.

I never look back darling. It distracts from the now.

I don't know. You're made of metal, but you have feelings, and you think about things, and that means you have a soul. And souls don't die.

Storytelling is storytelling no matter what your medium is. And the language of film is also the same. You're still using close ups and medium shots and long shots. You're still trying to introduce the audience to a character and get then to care.

We make films that we ourselves would want to see and then hope that other people would want to see it. If you try to analyze audiences or think there's some sophisticated recipe for success, then I think you are doomed. You're making it too complicated.

I don't know how anyone ever makes a good movie. It's a miracle every time.

I think we kind of changed how people did humans in CG animation after. If you look at films before 'Incredibles,' they tended to be photorealistic in a clunky and ugly way, with pores in their skin and too many eyelashes. It's kind of disturbing. And since, the designs have gotten a lot more playful in a lot of people's films, not just ours.

And it's not only films, I'm pretty unaware of anything that's going on in popular culture right now.

Original movies of any size are an endangered species.

Look, I think if you talk down to a kid or aim specifically at a kid, most kids aren't gonna like it, really, because most kids can feel when you are being patronizing.

Familiarity is all the rage. And if you're doing something that doesn't have its rhythms preset, you know, everybody's a little bit uncomfortable.