Ray Harryhausen Quotes

#1. I took courses at USC in film editing and art direction and photography when I was still in high school.

Ray Harryhausen

#2. I know pretty well in the broad sense what I'm going to do, because I have to know that when we shoot the live-action, so that it'll synchronize. Then I know pretty well when I get to the animation stage, what that scene requires.

Ray Harryhausen

#3. I was never restricted. I was never told what to do.

Ray Harryhausen

#4. I was very limited in what I could do with flying saucers, because they're just a metal disc. I had to try and put character in as if they were intelligently guided.

Ray Harryhausen

#5. When you put a big budget into a film, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be a better picture, but it does help in creating new images on the screen.

Ray Harryhausen

#6. Medusa was fascinating to work with because I gave her a snake's body so that she could pull herself with her hands which gave her a very creepy aura. I didn't want to animate cosmic gowns. Most Medusas you see in the classics have flowing robes which would be mad to even try to animate.

Ray Harryhausen

#7. If you make things too real, sometimes you bring it down to the mundane.

Ray Harryhausen

#8. I had to learn to do everything because I couldn't find another kindred soul. Now you see eighty people listed doing the same things I was doing by myself.

Ray Harryhausen

#9. I prefer to work alone and do everything alone, even today.

Ray Harryhausen

#10. So our films had a lot more to them than entertainment value, and I'm glad that a lot of people recognize that now. People realize now the value of them as educational.

Ray Harryhausen

#11. You could believe that Sinbad could fight a skeleton because that's from a period in the past, a magical period. But if you had James Bond fighting a skeleton, it'd be almost comical.

Ray Harryhausen

#12. Many times I felt like I'd do better than what the director did, but some of them got a little discouraged because they didn't have full charge of making the film, and sometimes there'd be battles of egos.

Ray Harryhausen

#13. I brought in the stories many times. I don't just do animation.

Ray Harryhausen

#14. That's why I never became a director. I never had patience with people.

Ray Harryhausen

#15. Animation requires a great deal of concentration, and I preferred to work alone because then I'm not deterred by somebody asking me if I want coffee, or the phone ringing or something.

Ray Harryhausen