Walt Disney on Design and Development

 “Everyone has to contribute, or they become laborers.”

“I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with ‘expressing’ myself with obscure creative impressions.”

“I definitely feel that we cannot do the fantastic things based on the real, unless we first know the real.”

“I don’t know if it’s art, but I know I like it.”

“No one person can take credit for the success of a motion picture. It’s strictly a team effort. From the time the story is written to the time the final release print comes off the printer, hundreds of people are involved — each one doing a job — each job contributing to the final product.”

“The ideal set-up would be the story man, the director, and the layout man, as well as musician, operating as a sort of story unit. They all should be keenly interested in the picture. No one in person should donate to an extent where he would keep the others from entering into the production and freely expressing themselves.”

“The story man must see clearly in his own mind how every piece of business will be put over. He should feel every expression, every reaction. He get far enough from his story to take a second look at it. . . to see whether there is any dead phase. . . to see whether the personalities are going to be interesting and appealing to the audience. He should also try to see that the things that his characters are doing are of an interesting nature.”

“We are not trying to entertain the critics. I’ll take my chances with the public.”

“We seem to know when to ‘tap the heart.’ Others have hit the intellect. We can hit them in all emotional way. Those who appeal to the intellect only appeal to a very limited group. The real thing behind this is: we are in the motion picture business, only we are drawing them instead of photographing them.”

“When we consider a project, we really study it–not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job.”

“You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them.”

“You know, the only way I’ve found to make these pictures is with animators. You can’t seem to do it with accountants and bookkeepers.”

“Your dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.”