You're assisting the audience to understand; you're giving them a bridge or an access. And if you don't give them that, if you keep it more abstract, it's almost more pure. It's a cooler thing.

But with The Dark Crystal, instead of puppetry we're trying to go toward a sense of realism -- toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive and we're mixing up puppetry and all kinds of other techniques.

At the time of Polaroid -- and I did a couple of other commercials just before I stopped doing that stuff -- at that point I was at the level where they respect you and your opinion and all that sort of thing.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

I think if you study -- if you learn too much of what others have done, you may tend to take the same direction as everybody else.

I hope that something better comes along.

Life is a kind of Labyrinth, with all its twists and turns, its straight paths and its occasional dead ends.

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great. You have no power over me!

I guess I was wrong when I said I never promised anyone. I promised me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered when wished on an evening star? Somebody thought of it and someone believed it, and look what its done so far.

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart.

Somebody like a Piggy or a Kermit, there needs to be several versions and so there will be several of them.

If anything, there's a difference in working with color in England and the color in the US.

NBC was trying to convert all of their local programming to color right away to encourage the sale of the sets, so I barely remember working in black and white, although I do know that I did do it, but there was not a major difference, though.

Yeah, we pretty much had a form and a shape by that time -- a style -- and I think one of the advantages of not having any relationship to any other puppeteer was that it gave me a reason to put those together myself for the needs of television.

I decided that what I really wanted to do was go off and paint.

There was a little afternoon show that was called Afternoon. Back in those days in television, most local stations had a midday show for housewives that had a series of things. It was like a variety show for midday.

It's into the same bag as E.T. and Yoda, wherein you're trying to create something that people will actually believe, but it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to do the thing itself.

I've never felt any sense of competition with anybody, and we're all friends; we're all good friends.

I do remember doing shows strictly in black and white, too, so you're right.