John Lasseter

I just devoured all of his [Buster Keaton's] films because his sense of comic timing was amazing. He's the closest a human being has ever come to a cartoon character. And I was just amazed at his sense of character and timing, the humor. It\'s all just so...sophisticated, even when you watch it today.

It [moviemaking] is about entertaining audiences with great characters and great stories, you want to make people laugh, you want to make people cry, you want to have great music that is memorable. You want a movie that, as soon as it\'s over, you want to watch it again, just like that. That\'s what it is, whether it\'s live-action, animation, hand drawn, computer, special effects, puppet animation, it doesn\'t matter. That\'s the goal of a filmmaker.

Animation, for me, is a wonderful art form. I never understood why the studios wanted to stop making animation. Maybe they felt that the audiences around the world only wanted to watch computer animation. I didn\'t understand that, because I don\'t think ever in the history of cinema did the medium of a film make that film entertaining or not. What I\'ve always felt is, what audiences like to watch are really good movies.

When you make these films, they become like your children. But at a certain point, they don't belong to you anymore; they belong to the world.

To me, I would much rather be part of a healthy industry than being the only player in a dead industry. There are so many great artists out there. And the goal is to make great movies, you know? So to be successful, quality is the best business plan as I always say.

It's so important to create in your own voice, to hold onto what makes you unique, and have faith in your vision.

You have to do three things really well to make a successful film. You have to tell a compelling story that has a story that is unpredictable, that keeps people on the edge of their seat where they can\'t wait to see what happens next. You then populate that story with really memorable and appealing characters. And then, you put that story and those characters in a believable world, not realistic but believable for the story that you\'re telling.

I\'ve always loved animation it\'s the reason why I do what I do for a living - the films of Walt Disney. This art form is so spectacular and beautiful. And I never quite understood the feeling amongst animation studios that audiences today only wanted to see computer animation. It\'s never about the medium that a film is made in, it\'s about the story. It\'s about how good the movie is.

There's never a wrong idea. You just keep throwing stuff out and inevitably there are elements of different things that inspire a character or environment.

Every Pixar film, when we start developing the story, it takes about four years to make one of our films.

Fortunately for me, I\'m married to an amazing woman - Nancy Lasseter - who is wise enough not to let me buy every car I want. If I was single, I would be living in a very small apartment and renting a warehouse full of cool cars.

There was a period of time when they estimated the two biggest stars in Hollywood were Charlie Chaplin and Mickey Mouse.

In overseeing both Disney and Pixar Animation, each studio has a unique culture.

I think that as I had children, I have five sons, and they got into video games and were the prime ages through the development of video games. It was so much fun seeing them play the games and seeing it through their eyes.

When you really study espionage movies, or spy movies, the beginnings are really set up to have, like, an amazing bit of action, but at the moment you\'re watching it, you have no idea why or what it\'s about.

I have met a lot of top chefs around the world during my travels. Each one of them has said \'Ratatouille\' is their favorite movie and the only movie that truly captures what they do.

Steve Jobs is like a brother to me and he\'s one of the founders of Pixar, and when the first iPad came out, I got one right away.

We use shorts at the studio extensively to develop talent. I always love to give opportunities for young story people, animators, layout people something like that to take the next step up in their career and try things out.

The specific influences on villains to me is, I love the villains who are really hyper-smart. When at the end of the movie you find out what they were about, and it makes absolutely perfect sense from their point of view.

Probably more than any other movie we\'ve made here at Pixar, \'Up\' was the one we were the most nervous about.

I love French auto design of the early \'50s, \'60s, early \'70s of Citorens, Renaults, and Peugeots. They\'re so unique.

The greatest bad guys, you understand where they\'re coming from. They believe they\'re doing the right thing. Sometimes it\'s for greed, sometimes it\'s for other reasons, but they are what they call the center of good. They always believe they\'re doing the right thing.

\'Cars\' is a really personal story for me because, first of all, I grew up in Los Angeles - the car crazy capital.

I\'m a huge fan of Blu-rays myself.

When you\'re a director, you really live whatever you do.

As a filmmaker, I\'m very collaborative. I don\'t pretend to know everything that is needed to make a movie. What I like to do is get together with a group of people, starting with developing the story and bounce around ideas.

I think \'Disney Infinity\' is exciting. It\'s hard to even call it a video game, because it\'s so different. What excites me about this is how it\'s going to put more and more of what happens in the game into the hands of the user; it\'s up to them. You can play it to where everything\'s laid out for you.

The iPad changed my life!

I believe that, by directing, it makes me a better executive as well.

The interstate highway system was built to get people from point A to point B as fast as possible. And they knocked down mountains and filled valleys and made everything nice and big and flat, and they bypassed every town.