Akira Toriyama Quotes

My animation work is a major source of pride for me.

I was always into cartoons and animation.

I was at Disney for about four years, so I made good friends there. It was a time of not a lot of creativity. It was the end of the first great era, with a few of the original animators. They called them the Nine Old Men. I learned a lot from them, but it wasn't going to be a future home for me.

I don't think there's more than half-a-dozen cartoons that I've been really truly happy with in all the time I've been doing it.

I never got tired of Tom and Jerry, but I did have a dream of doing more with my life than making cartoons.

When I was a freshman in high school, I read a book about the making of Disney's 'Sleeping Beauty' called 'The Art of Animation.' It was this weird revelation for me, because I hadn't considered that people actually get paid to make cartoons.

When I was a teenager, my dad watched my films and told me I could go to art college and study animation. He made me see that I could do this for a living.

People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don't have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there's this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.

It's amazing what they can do with animation nowadays. It's really beautiful. The 3D stuff is out of hand.

I love animation, I really do, but I don't do it for the children.

Nothing's occurring in animation - you manufacture everything.

I was an animator for a while early on, but a 2D animator.

I used to teach animation history classes at the University of Texas, and I wrote my master's thesis on cartoons. I just love cartoons.

I used to think that I wanted to be a hat maker, but I don't think that would have worked out.

I started out as a producer. and I used to work at Disney. and I worked with a lot of the animators and went on to become great friends with a lot of these guys and worked on a lot of projects together.

I'm a true fan of animation, and it's my livelihood.

In the '70s, as a kid, someone took me to a Tournee of Animation festival at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

When I was a kid, I wanted to make movies. In particular, I loved animation and would love to have been an animator.

I've been very fortunate in animation - when I get on a project, people tend to keep me, so I have long stays of work rather than bouncing around.

It's a strange business, and unfortunately, what we do in animation is a mystery, especially the directors.

I was about 6 or 7, I would have said I wanted to be an actor and an artist. And that just kind of kept honing itself around film and getting closer to film.

An animator is an actor with a pencil.

I feel very fortunate to be currently in the position where I can choose to be an actor, writer, director, or all of them at the same time. With being a mom, I've recently had a priority shift that has sort of thrusted itself on my existence, but I tend to use all experiences as something to work with. Anything that is profoundly, energy shifting - like having a child - is fodder for creative thought.

If you keep thinking about putting on a conference or being a Hollywood screenwriter, and you find the idea terrifies but intrigues you, it's probably a worthy endeavor for you. You grow (and thrive!) by doing what excites you and what scares you everyday, not by trying to find your passion.

I would encourage people to realize that you don't have to panic if you're not part of a mainstream, or if you find yourself outside the flow. If it doesn't suit you, don't go along with it. Just sit it out and get your stuff done. Don't just sit moaning or getting drunk—I spent some years doing that. But if you can just come up with something of your own, however minor it is, that's going to be easier to live with when you're at the end of your life.