Joseph Barbera Quotes


"One of the most attractive things about writing your autobiography is that you're not dead."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Autobiography, Writing)

"Not once in six years did I make it to the office by 9 on the dot."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Office, Years)

"My marriage had been impulsive. That marriage should have been short-lived instead of the 23 years it spanned."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Marriage, Years)

"Parents look at me like I'm somebody pretty important, and say, We were raised on your characters, and now we're enjoying them all over again with our children."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Children, Now, Parents, Pretty)

"My biggest kick comes from the individual fans I run into. Middle-aged men ask me when we're going to do more Johnny Quest cartoons."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Men, Cartoons, Fans, Quest)

"You keep pitching. Most of the pitches run wild. A few are caught."
- Joseph Barbera
"Los Angeles was an impression of failure, of disappointment, of despair, and of oddly makeshift lives. This is California? I thought."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Thought, Impression, Failure, Despair, Disappointment)

"My last days at MGM were like the fall of the Roman Empire in fast motion."
- Joseph Barbera
"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."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Hell, Publicity, Want)

"Ted Turner sailed into the meeting, and I mean sailed. He holds himself as if he were at the helm of his sailboat, in the process of winning the race."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Winning, Meeting, Race)

"There is no law that says a man who earned a hundred million dollars in his first half-dozen years on the job has to be a decent human being, but Mike Eisner is that and more."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Being, First, Job, Law, Man, Years)

"What about Mickey Mouse? Disney tried very hard to make him a star. But Mickey Mouse is more of a symbol than a real character."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Character, Disney, Mouse, Symbol)

"Creating fantasy is a very personal thing, but you can't take the process too personally."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Fantasy)

"What the real world of 1941 needed most was the release and relief provided by laughter."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Laughter, World)

"When animators weren't sleeping, they were drinking."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Drinking)

"While I have never been a regular churchgoer, I'm anything but immune to the power and the majesty of the religious experience."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Experience, Power, Religious)

"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."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Boxing, Romantic)

"That's what keeps me going: dreaming, inventing, then hoping and dreaming some more in order to keep dreaming."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Order)

"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."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Old, Publicity)

"I was convinced there as only one actor to play Templeton the Rat, and that was Tony Randall."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Actor, Play)

"Except for me, no one in my family could draw."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Family)

"After I had done a handful of cartoons I was satisfied with, I started submitting them to the magazines."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Cartoons)

"Among the great glories of the MGM lot were the vast outdoor sets that had been constructed over the years."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Years)

"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."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Movies, First, Partnership, Television)

"Despite the rejection, and in violation of all the rules, I came back year after year."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Rejection, Rules)

"Friends don't necessarily made good business or creative partners."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Business, Friends)

"I cannot say who, precisely, came up with the idea of a Stone Age family."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Age, Family, Idea)

"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."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Hope, Mouse)

"I was 82 years old before Who's Who thought I was enough of a big shot to do a piece on me."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Thought, Old, Years)

"Faced with the choice of enduring a bad toothache or going to the dentist, we generally tried to ride out the bad tooth."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Choice)

"I learned long ago to accept the fact that not everything I create will see the light of day."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Day, Fact, Light, Will)

"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."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Idea, Help, Hospitals)

"I have spent a lot of years on the outside looking in."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Years)

"I hate fishing, and I can't imagine why anyone would want to hike when you can get in the car and drive."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Car, Fishing, Hate, Want)

"I first pitched the idea of doing a series of cartoons based on Bible stories. They didn't much like it."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Idea, Bible, Cartoons, First)

"I don't know that I spent any more time alone than any other kid, but being by myself never bothered me."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Time, Being)

"I never got tired of Tom and Jerry, but I did have a dream of doing more with my life than making cartoons."
- Joseph Barbera
(Related: Life, Dream, Cartoons)