Chuck Jones Quotes & Sayings

The weatherman is not only blamed for his failure to foretell, he is blamed for the weather itself. — Chuck Jones

We must not confuse distortion with innovation; distortion is useless change, art is beneficial change. — Chuck Jones

Well, directing is doing the key drawings, not the key animation, mind you. — Chuck Jones

Each character represented a trait that resides in me. — Chuck Jones

All of you have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone. — Chuck Jones

Eschew the ordinary, disdain the commonplace. If you have a single-minded need for something, let it be the unusual, the esoteric, the bizarre, the unexpected. — Chuck Jones

Comedy is unusual people in real situations; farce is real people in unusual situations. — Chuck Jones

Humiliation and indifference, these are conditions every one of us finds unbearable - this is why the Coyote when falling is more concerned with the audience's opinion of him than he is with the inevitable result of too much gravity. — Chuck Jones

The author O. Henry taught me about the value of the unexpected. He once wrote about the noise of flowers and the smell of birds - the birds were chickens and the flowers dried sunflowers rattling against a wall. — Chuck Jones

Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter. — Chuck Jones

You have a coyote inside you and you have to get it out — Chuck Jones

Anyone can negatively criticize - it is the cheapest of all comment because it requires not a modicum of the effort that suggestion requires. — Chuck Jones

The name 'Chuck Jones', according to my uncle, limited my choice of profession to second baseman or cartoonist. — Chuck Jones

I have to think as Bugs Bunny, not of Bugs Bunny. — Chuck Jones

Bugs is who we want to be. Daffy is who we are. — Chuck Jones

Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out. — Chuck Jones

All worthwhile endeavors are 90% work and 10% love, and only the love should show. — Chuck Jones

There's only one test of a great children's book, or a great children's film, and that is this: If it can be read or viewed with pleasure by adults, then it has the chance to be a great children's film, or a great children's book. — Chuck Jones

The only thing an adult can give a child is time. — Chuck Jones

Anyone can say 'no'. It is the first word a child learns and often the
first word he speaks. It is a cheap word because it requires no
explanation, and many men and women have acquired a reputation for
intelligence who know only this word and have used it in place of
thought on every occasion. — Chuck Jones

Fog and smog should not be confused and are easily separated by color. — Chuck Jones

In timing a film, we used to assume that sneaks move slowly. This was great for animators-thirty-six to forty-eight drawings for a single step-but it was sheer hell for the pace of the picture. So the rapid tiptoe was invented. — Chuck Jones

Every great artist must begin by learning to draw with the single line, and my advice to young animators is to learn how to live with that razor-sharp instrument or art. An artist who comes to me with eight or ten good drawings of the human figure in simple lines has a good chance of being hired. But I will tell the artist who comes with a bunch of drawings of Bugs Bunny to go back and learn how to draw the human body. An artist who knows that can learn how to draw ANYTHING, including Bugs Bunny. — Chuck Jones

Animation means to invoke life, not to imitate it. — Chuck Jones

The only time a wife listens to her husband is when he's asleep. — Chuck Jones

Disney was not a good animator, he didn't draw well at all, but he was always a great idea man, and a good writer. — Chuck Jones

If you were to draw Bugs, the easiest way is to learn how to draw a carrot and then hook a rabbit onto it — Chuck Jones

I have come to know Bugs so well that I no longer have to think about what he is doing in any situation. — Chuck Jones

I started reading when I was about three, a little over three. — Chuck Jones

Dell is to a degree in the penalty box because expectations and probable results have gotten ratcheted down. — Chuck Jones

You've got a million bad drawings in you; you better get started. — Chuck Jones

Early experiences convinced me that animals can and do have quite distinct personalities. — Chuck Jones

The close-up, according to D.W. Griffith, allows subtle changes of facial expression-the raising of an eyebrow or the flicker of a smile-to become part of the action. — Chuck Jones

Once you have heard a strange audience burst into laughter at a film you directed, you realize what the word joy is all about. — Chuck Jones

The rules are simple. Take your work, but never yourself, seriously. Pour in the love and whatever skill you have, and it will come out. — Chuck Jones

The Coyote is limited, as Bugs is limited, by his anatomy. — Chuck Jones

Censorship, I believe, is the most dangerous enemy to all human communication, and piety of intention is probably the most dangerous, the most virulent and the most self-satisfying. — Chuck Jones

Artists don't need criticism, artists need love — Chuck Jones

You can't force inspiration. It's like trying to catch a butterfly with a hoop but no net. If you keep your mind open and receptive, though, one day a butterfly will land on your finger. — Chuck Jones

You do not 'suffer' if you decide 'that's the way it is' rather than 'why is it this way?' — Chuck Jones

I'm not a believer in putting designers off in an ivory tower. They need to have a voice at the table so they can identify where and why design can make a difference. We also need to understand the business issues. If we don't make our numbers this quarter, we don't earn the right to do something cool the next time. — Chuck Jones

An idea has no worth at all without believable characters to implement it; a plot without characters is like a tennis court without players. Daffy Duck is to a Buck Rogers story what John McEnroe was to tennis. Personality. That is the key, the drum, the fife. Forget the plot. — Chuck Jones

An animator is an actor with a pencil. — Chuck Jones

Human beings will line up for miles to buy a bucket of catastrophes, but don't try selling sunshine and light - you'll go broke. — Chuck Jones

I'm still astonished that somebody would offer me a job and pay me to do what I wanted to do. — Chuck Jones

If you start with character, you probably will end up with good drawings. — Chuck Jones

If you want a midget to look like a baby, don't put a cigar in his mouth. — Chuck Jones

If you make a fool of yourself in front of a cat, he will sneer at you, if you are sober; he will leave the room if you are drunk. If you make a fool of yourself in front a dog, he will make a fool of himself, too. — Chuck Jones

A comedian is not a person who opens a funny door - he's the person who opens a door funny. — Chuck Jones

In 1918, when I was 6 or 7 years old, radio was just coming into use in the Great War. — Chuck Jones

Everything on Saturday morning [cartoons] moves alike that's one of the reasons it's not animation. The drawings are different, but everybody acts the same way, their feet move the same way, and everybody runs the same way. It doesn't matter whether it's an alligator or a man or a baby or anything, they all move the same. — Chuck Jones

When critics sit in judgment it is hard to tell where justice leaves off and vengeance begins. — Chuck Jones

A lion's work hours are only when he's hungry, once he's satisfied the predator and prey live peacefully together — Chuck Jones

Painting does what we cannot do - it brings a three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional plane. — Chuck Jones

[W]hen the coyote falls, he gets up and brushes himself off; it's preservation of dignity. He's humiliated, and it worries him when he ends up looking like an accordion. A coyote isn't much, but it's better than being an accordion. — Chuck Jones

Animation isn't the illusion of life; it is life — Chuck Jones

Comedy is a very, very, very stringent business. — Chuck Jones

Mark Twain's Roughing It is a book that many people don't know about, but I highly recommend to anybody at any age. — Chuck Jones

The road is better than the end. — Chuck Jones

The older I get, the more individuality I find in animals and the less I find in humans. — Chuck Jones

The whole essence of good drawing - and of good thinking, perhaps - is to work a subject down to the simplest form possible and still have it believable for what it is meant to be. — Chuck Jones

As you become acquainted with a character you are creating, you add parts of yourself that are pertinent to that character. — Chuck Jones