Joseph Barbera Quotes

Making cartoons means very hard work at every step of the way, but creating a successful cartoon character is the hardest work of all.

Los Angeles was an impression of failure, of disappointment, of despair, and of oddly makeshift lives. This is California? I thought.

In those days, boxing was very glamorous and romantic. You listened to fights on the radio, and a good announcer made it seem like a contest between gladiators.

I was convinced there as only one actor to play Templeton the Rat, and that was Tony Randall.

I was 82 years old before Who's Who thought I was enough of a big shot to do a piece on me.

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

I hope we don't get to the point where we have to have the cat stop chasing the mouse to teach him glassblowing and basket weaving.

I have spent a lot of years on the outside looking in.

I hate fishing, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to hike when you can get in the car and drive.

I don't know that I spent any more time alone than any other kid, but being by myself never bothered me.

I cannot say who, precisely, came up with the idea of a Stone Age family.

Friends don't necessarily made good business or creative partners.

Except for me, no one in my family could draw.

Creating fantasy is a very personal thing, but you can't take the process too personally.

Bill Hanna and I owe an awful lot to television, but we both got our start and built the first phase of our partnership in the movies.

Among the great glories of the MGM lot were the vast outdoor sets that had been constructed over the years.

After I had done a handful of cartoons I was satisfied with, I started submitting them to the magazines.

That's what keeps me going: dreaming, inventing, then hoping and dreaming some more in order to keep dreaming.

Publicity gets more than a little tiring. You want it, you need it, you crave it, and you're scared as hell when it stops.

I first pitched the idea of doing a series of cartoons based on Bible stories. They didn't much like it.

I learned long ago to accept the fact that not everything I create will see the light of day.

Faced with the choice of enduring a bad toothache or going to the dentist, we generally tried to ride out the bad tooth.

High-level, big-deal publicity has a way of getting old for me, but what never fails to thrill me is when I make personal appearances.

I don't know anyone who enjoys going to the hospital. To help remedy this, I got an idea to create what a Laugh Room in the pediatric ward of hospitals.

Despite the rejection, and in violation of all the rules, I came back year after year.