Our better angels get clouded and we're more selfish than we should be, more anxious or neurotic or desperate or self-sabotaging. Crueler, even. But I do think there's hope for everyone... I think redemption is possible for anybody.
I am doing what I can to expand the tent and bring up other people and make sure we are telling different kinds of stories.
You're going to get different kinds of animation for different kinds of audiences. Traditionally, adult animation has been for the young male audience. There's no reason why that should be.
I moved out to L.A. from New York... and I remember feeling, kind of like anyone does when they first move, so very lonely and isolated.
I've been in rooms where the creator has sold a show and then felt like the network didn't buy the show they wanted. They bought a show they thought they could craft into the show they wanted.
Humor was a big part of my childhood. My family was full of comedians. We'd sit around the dinner table and try to one-up each other. It sometimes ended in tears, but usually in laughter.
I had ADD as a kid and often acted as the class clown. My teachers used to tell my mom, 'Raphael thinks he's a real comedian.'
There was a warm and encouraging environment at home. My self-loathing and neuroticism are not because of my upbringing.
I was very moved by shows that combined things that were funny and sad. I remember liking 'Simpsons' episodes in which emotions were central.
I think life doesn't necessarily have an endgame.
My general feeling about award shows that I've been to in the past was always that when you win, it's a great time. What a joy. You're celebrating there. And when you lose, the whole thing feels very stupid and why does anyone care about any of this. This is boring. I want to go home.
If you try to guess what people are gonna think, you're chasing the wrong thing.
I think Netflix have a bit of a reputation for being totally hands-off, which is not quite fair. They are very active and vested, but in a really good way.
I am a big fan of 'Rick and Morty.'
I think that, as a show creator, you have to be very careful about what messages you're putting out into the world. That is a not always popular thing to suggest, because it feels very Tipper Gore-y, perhaps.
One thing I think about a lot is that one of my favorite pieces of narrative art as a child was 'Calvin and Hobbes.' I really saw myself in the character of Calvin. I was rambunctious, I didn't always follow the rules, I had a wild imagination.
I don't know, I don't know how to do anything. I'm just like, doing impressions of what I've seen other people do, and hoping no one knows that I'm actually just a little monster in a human suit making my arms go up and down.
A lot of Christmas episodes of comedies are comedies trying to be dramas.
A lot of Christmas episodes feel like stories in quotation marks. Uh, a homeless guy comes to live with them and they all learn a lesson. That didn't come from an organic place.
That's all life is, I guess. Just a bunch of riffs. Look at me: I'm wearing a tie. Why am I wearing a tie? It's because I saw an adult wear a tie and I thought, Oh, that's what people do. We're all just trying to be what an adult is.
