It's no secret that we were sticking just about every nickel we had on the chance that people would really be interested in something totally new and unique in the field of entertainment.

We allow no geniuses around our Studio.

We are not trying to entertain the critics. I'll take my chances with the public.

We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us.

I started, actually, to make my first animated cartoon in 1920. Of course, they were very crude things then and I used sort of little puppet things.

People still think of me as a cartoonist, but the only thing I lift a pen or pencil for these days is to sign a contract, a check, or an autograph.

We did it Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster - closed and forgotten within the first year.

Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

I never called my work an 'art'. It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment.

I believe in being an innovator.

I have no use for people who throw their weight around as celebrities, or for those who fawn over you just because you are famous.

I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters - to make them personalities.

We believed in our idea - a family park where parents and children could have fun- together.

I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.

All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable.

You can't just let nature run wild.

Whenever I go on a ride, I'm always thinking of what's wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

I'd say it's been my biggest problem all my life... it's money. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true.

Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.

Crowded classrooms and half-day sessions are a tragic waste of our greatest national resource - the minds of our children.

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.

I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known.

When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity.

I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.

Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.

Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end.

You reach a point where you don't work for money.

Disneyland is the star, everything else is in the supporting role.

Laughter is America's most important export.

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.

Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.

You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.

There's nothing funnier than the human animal.

Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.

A man should never neglect his family for business.

When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.

When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”