Jim Henson Quotes & Sayings

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. — Jim Henson

I think it's not particularly necessary to lead a religious life. People progress just as well in music, or art, or math or science or gardening or whatever. It all seems to work as well and the process is good. — Jim Henson

We see with our eyes. We know with our hearts. Outside ... Inside. — Jim Henson

When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there. — Jim Henson

When I was a kid, I never saw a puppet show. I never played with puppets or had any interest in them. — Jim Henson

Nobody creates a fad. It just happens. People love going along with the idea of a beautiful pig. It's like a conspiracy. — Jim Henson

The only way the magic works is by hard work. But hard work can be fun. — Jim Henson

I don't want'a die ... I have other plans! -Fraggle Rock — Jim Henson

If you can't beat them. Join them — Jim Henson

I try hard not to judge anyone, and I try to bless everyone who is a part of my life, particularly anyone with whom I am having any problems — Jim Henson

There's not a word nevertheless, for previous pals who've just fulfilled. — Jim Henson

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! — Jim Henson

Take what you got and fly with it. — Jim Henson

It all ends in one of two ways: either someone gets eaten or something blows up. — Jim Henson

Yeah, well when I first started working, it was $5 a show; it was probably a little higher by the time I got to my own show, but I remember that they put me under contract at $100 a week, which to me was really an astronomical price. — Jim Henson

I was very interested in theatre, mostly in stage design. I did a little bit of acting. — Jim Henson

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

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

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. — Jim Henson

I hope that something better comes along. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

Watch out for the icy patch — Jim Henson

Here's some simple advice: Always be yourself. Never take yourself to seriously. And beware of advice from experts, pigs, and members of Parliament. — Jim Henson

I've always tried to present a positive view of the world in my work. It's so much easier to be negative and cynical and predict doom for the world than it is to try and figure out how to make things better. We have an obligation to do the latter. — Jim Henson

It's a wonderful life and I love it. — Jim Henson

I don't resent working long hours. I shouldn't- I'm the one who set up my life this way. I love to work. It's the thing that I get the most satisfaction out of-nd probably what I do best. Not that I don't enjoy days off. I love vacations and loafing around. But I think much of the world has the wrong idea of working. It's one of the good things in life. The feeling of accomplishment is more real and satisfying than finishing a good meal- or looking at one's accumulated wealth. — Jim Henson

If you take a character and you call him a frog, or like Rowlf, our dog, call him a dog, you immediately give the audience a handle. — Jim Henson

Well, Detroit Institute is kind of a key - probably the largest permanent collection of puppets in the US. — Jim Henson

Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. — Jim Henson

The beauty of nature has been one of the great inspirations in my life. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

I don't know exactly where ideas come from, but when I'm working well ideas just appear. I've heard other people say similar things - so it's one of the ways I know there's help and guidance out there. It's just a matter of our figuring out how to receive the ideas or information that are waiting to be heard. — Jim Henson

All of a sudden you realise that you are the person who has control of your life. — Jim Henson

It has always been difficult to get Big Bird to be very pretty. Big Bird in England is much more gorgeous. — Jim Henson

Only time can heal your broken heart. Just as only time can heal his broken arms and legs. — Jim Henson

The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children. — Jim Henson

I think there are lots of ways of leading very good lives and growing spiritually. This process of growth goes on whether we believe it or not. — Jim Henson

Certainly I've lived my whole life through my imagination. But the world of imagination is there for all of us
a sense of play, of pretending, of wonder. It's there with us as we live. — Jim Henson

If our 'message' is anything, it's a positive approach to life. That life is basically good. People are basically good. — Jim Henson

When The Muppet Show ended, we all sat around and said, what kind of television show would we like to do. We felt the need these days are for some quality children's programming. — Jim Henson

No time is wasted time — Jim Henson

Yeah, I did some small parts in high school and the first year of college and then fairly soon thereafter I settled into the backstage scenery, and then at the University of Maryland I was doing posters for their productions. — Jim Henson

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

Television is basically teaching whether you want it to or not. — Jim Henson

Yeah, I think we did the term Muppets before we got the show Sam and Friends - a few months after I started working. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

I think my own strengths are in television production. — Jim Henson

A film is not done by one person. It's done by a lot of people. I love this whole collaborative aspect. When it works well, you end up with something better than any of us started out to do. — Jim Henson

I believe that life is basically a process of growth-that we go through many lives, choosing those situations and problems that we will learn through. — Jim Henson

Do the jobs you like least first. It makes each successive job easier. — Jim Henson

My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here. — Jim Henson

Life is meant to be fun, and joyous, and fulfilling. — Jim Henson

I know that I personally have felt quite happy because I've done what I wanted to do. I pursued my interests and have thus managed to combine my business with lots of fun. I guess my only advice is to do what you enjoy, and try to do your best with it. — Jim Henson

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

I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best. — Jim Henson

There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met. — Jim Henson

If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn't anything you can't do if you want to. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

[Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are. — Jim Henson

(Lisa Henson about her father) He admired the job of the man who walks along the road picking up trash with a long stick. He thought that guy had a great job, walking along with a stick, enjoying the road, and doing only good in the world, with hundreds of small actions. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

I know that it's easier to portray a world that's filled with cynicism and anger, where problems are solved with violence. What's a whole lot tougher is to offer alternatives, to present other ways conflicts can be resolved, and to show that you can have a positive impact on your world. To do that, you have to put yourself out on a limb, take chances, and run the risk of being called a do-gooder. — Jim Henson

I guess I was wrong when I said I never promised anyone. I promised me. — Jim Henson

I know I drive some people crazy with what seems like ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked for me. — Jim Henson

Moving right along
In search of good times
And good news,
With good friends you can't lose.
This could become a habit.
Opportunity just knocked,
Let's reach out and grab it,
Together we'll nab it,
We'll hitch-hike, bus, or yellow cab it. — Jim Henson

Follow your enthusiasm. It's something I've always believed
in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what
you enjoy doing. — Jim Henson

Cara: *Flies*
Gen: What? I don't have wings!
Cara: Ofcourse not! You're a boy. — Jim Henson

Never eat anything at one sitting that you can't lift. — Jim Henson

Someday we'll find it the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me — Jim Henson

Actually the copies of characters is something I don't particularly like to talk about in articles but just for your information, most characters there's only one. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

At the University of Maryland, my first year I started off planning to major in art because I was interested in theatre design, stage design or television design. — Jim Henson

Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life, enjoy it. — Jim Henson

If you're doing a large, complicated character with radio controls, it might take a number of people several months to make it and if you're talking about a quick little hand puppet, it could be made in 2 days, so there's enormous range there, and no real easy generalities. — Jim Henson

Do everything at 100 percent of its potential and never accept second best. — Jim Henson

Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep but it's not so bad
I don't worry and I don't weep. In fact I'm glad.
Because I get up off my pillow and I flip on the light.
I get down and get hip in the still of the night I stretch and I yawn and then I breathe real deep And dance myself to sleep.
I hoof around my beddie just a-tappin' my toes
Before I know what's happened I'm a-ready to doze
Got some partners I can count the boogie-woogie sheep
I dance myself to sleep. — Jim Henson

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

I really do believe that all of you are at the beginning of a wonderful journey. As you start traveling down that road of life, remember this: There are never enough comfort stops. The places you're going to are never on the map. And once you get that map out, you won't be able to re-fold it no matter how smart you are.
So forget the map, roll down the windows, and whenever you can pull over and have picnic with a pig. And if you can help it never fly as cargo. — Jim Henson

The most sophisticated people I've ever known had just one thing in common: they were all in touch with their inner children. — Jim Henson

I don't want'a die ... I have other plans! — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson

Yes, its one of the basic truths of the universe, ... Things don't disappear. They just change, and change and change again. — Jim Henson

Music is an essential part of everything we do. Like puppetry, music has an abstract quality which speaks to a worldwide audience in a wonderful way that nourishes the soul. — Jim Henson

We thought it would be fun to try to design a show that would work well internationally and so that' s what we're intending to do with Fraggle Rock, and we are indeed now selling it around the world. — Jim Henson

No, there's not much competition between puppeteers in general because everybody's working their own style. — Jim Henson

As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood. — Jim Henson

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. — Jim Henson