Jim Henson Quotes

I know that I personally have felt quite happy because I've done what I wanted to do. I pursued my interests and have thus managed to combine my business with lots of fun. I guess my only advice is to do what you enjoy, and try to do your best with it. ~ Jim Henson

List of Artists Who Created Fantasy Worlds to Try and Cure Bouts of Sadness
1. Italo Calvino
2. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3. Jim Henson and Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths
4. The creator of MySpace
5. Richard Brautigan
6. J.K. Rowling
7. The inventor of the children's toy Lite-Brite
8. Ann Sexton
9. David Foster Wallace
10. Gaugin and the Caribbean
11. Charles Schulz
12. Liam Rector ~ Shane Jones

When he first started - Jim Henson, who created Bid Bird and Oscar - he said Big Bird was just a big, goofy guy. And it was - a script came along and I said, 'I think Big Bird would be much more useful to the show if he were a child learning all the things we were teaching in the show.' And so he didn't know the alphabet, even, for instance. ~ Caroll Spinney

The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children. ~ Jim Henson

Nothing was fair. If you expected fairness, you would be forever disappointed. ~ A.C.H. Smith

Walter noticed the blue Cookie Monster head resting on the floor, From some angles, the smiling open mouth looked like an expression of abashed joy, from others it resembled horror. ~ Rion Amilcar Scott

Life is meant to be fun, and joyous, and fulfilling. ~ Jim Henson

If you can't beat them. Join them ~ Jim Henson

If you take a character and you call him a frog, or like Rowlf, our dog, call him a dog, you immediately give the audience a handle. ~ Jim Henson

I don't want'a die ... I have other plans! -Fraggle Rock ~ Jim Henson

My siblings and I, we were raised on TV and films. Not a day went by that we weren't watching one of three movies - 'Caddyshack,' 'Animal House,' 'Beverly Hills Cop' - on rotation. Our comedy, our personalities were set watching 'Sesame Street': these really sort of wacky, Jim Henson-y characters. ~ Teddy Sears

I believe that life is basically a process of growth-that we go through many lives, choosing those situations and problems that we will learn through. ~ Jim Henson

Jim (Henson) should have ****in fired me several times ... ~ Frank Oz

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered when wished on an evening star? Somebody thought of it and someone believed it, and look what its done so far. ~ Jim Henson

There's not one major greatest influence on my career. It would be film and great artists and great imagineers - Jim Henson, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin, people who understand the joy of the imagination. ~ Zac Posen

It has always been difficult to get Big Bird to be very pretty. Big Bird in England is much more gorgeous. ~ Jim Henson

Follow your enthusiasm. It's something I've always believed
in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what
you enjoy doing. ~ Jim Henson

The beauty of nature has been one of the great inspirations in my life. ~ Jim Henson

I hope that something better comes along. ~ Jim Henson

It's a wonderful life and I love it. ~ Jim Henson

Yeah, well when I first started working, it was $5 a show; it was probably a little higher by the time I got to my own show, but I remember that they put me under contract at $100 a week, which to me was really an astronomical price. ~ Jim Henson

Moving right along
In search of good times
And good news,
With good friends you can't lose.
This could become a habit.
Opportunity just knocked,
Let's reach out and grab it,
Together we'll nab it,
We'll hitch-hike, bus, or yellow cab it. ~ Jim Henson

One day I was standing with my stage manager, Sandy Prudden, and Buddy Sheffield watching as Kermit the Frog (with the help of the late Jim Henson) sweetly sang a song. Sandy was always a big joker. He sidled up to me and said, "Isn't it amazing the way Kermit can sing like that with somebody's hand up his ass." Without missing a beat, I came back with, "Shoot, that ain't nothin'. I did that for seven years on the 'The Porter Wagoner Show. ~ Dolly Parton

life is a kind of Labyrinth, with all its twists and turns, its straight paths and its occasional dead ends. ~ Jim Henson

I don't know where the ideas come from. It's just a matter of us figuring out how to receive the ideas waiting to be heard Muppet Exhibit Seattle EMP Jim Henson ~ Patricia Kay

Quite often, young lady, it seems we're not getting anywhere, when in fact we are. ~ A.C.H. Smith

I believe that we form our own lives, that we create our own reality, and that everything works out for the best. ~ Jim Henson

Actually the copies of characters is something I don't particularly like to talk about in articles but just for your information, most characters there's only one. ~ Jim Henson

It's into the same bag as E.T. and Yoda, wherein you're trying to create something that people will actually believe, but it's not so much a symbol of the thing, but you're trying to do the thing itself. ~ Jim Henson

I'm sorry. It feels like the moment calls for some humor. You're ranting and dressed like Elmo.

The Cookie Monster.

Whatever, Rashid ~ Rion Amilcar Scott

I bought a tape recorder and some stuff and went to Europe for three months when I was 18. The puppeteering was only there as a hobby. I wanted to be a journalist. When I was 19, and after I had spent about a year in college, Jim Henson asked me to come out and try puppeteering for awhile. ~ Frank Oz

When I got to New York, I had no place to sleep. The pay from 'Sesame Street' wasn't enough to rent an apartment. I was staying on people's couches. I stayed in the dressing room until they found out. I stayed with Jim Henson and his family for a week, and I wanted to do that permanently. I didn't dare ask, though. ~ Caroll Spinney

We see with our eyes. We know with our hearts. Outside ... Inside. ~ Jim Henson

All of a sudden you realise that you are the person who has control of your life. ~ Jim Henson

Yeah, we pretty much had a form and a shape by that time - a style - and I think one of the advantages of not having any relationship to any other puppeteer was that it gave me a reason to put those together myself for the needs of television. ~ Jim Henson

But with The Dark Crystal, instead of puppetry we're trying to go toward a sense of realism - toward a reality of creatures that are actually alive and we're mixing up puppetry and all kinds of other techniques. ~ Jim Henson

I think if you study
if you learn too much of what others have done, you may tend to take the same direction as everybody else. ~ Jim Henson

NBC was trying to convert all of their local programming to color right away to encourage the sale of the sets, so I barely remember working in black and white, although I do know that I did do it, but there was not a major difference, though. ~ Jim Henson

I think my own strengths are in television production. ~ Jim Henson

You're assisting the audience to understand; you're giving them a bridge or an access. And if you don't give them that, if you keep it more abstract, it's almost more pure. It's a cooler thing. ~ Jim Henson

(Lisa Henson about her father) He admired the job of the man who walks along the road picking up trash with a long stick. He thought that guy had a great job, walking along with a stick, enjoying the road, and doing only good in the world, with hundreds of small actions. ~ Jim Henson

Take what you got and fly with it. ~ Jim Henson

Do everything at 100 percent of its potential and never accept second best. ~ Jim Henson

I think there are lots of ways of leading very good lives and growing spiritually. This process of growth goes on whether we believe it or not. ~ Jim Henson

I guess I was wrong when I said I never promised anyone. I promised me. ~ Jim Henson

You can propose on our honeymoon
[Miss Piggy to Kermit the Frog] ~ Miss Piggy

Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep but it's not so bad
I don't worry and I don't weep. In fact I'm glad.
Because I get up off my pillow and I flip on the light.
I get down and get hip in the still of the night I stretch and I yawn and then I breathe real deep And dance myself to sleep.
I hoof around my beddie just a-tappin' my toes
Before I know what's happened I'm a-ready to doze
Got some partners I can count the boogie-woogie sheep
I dance myself to sleep. ~ Jim Henson

I really do believe that all of you are at the beginning of a wonderful journey. As you start traveling down that road of life, remember this: There are never enough comfort stops. The places you're going to are never on the map. And once you get that map out, you won't be able to re-fold it no matter how smart you are.
So forget the map, roll down the windows, and whenever you can pull over and have picnic with a pig. And if you can help it never fly as cargo. ~ Jim Henson

I decided that what I really wanted to do was go off and paint. ~ Jim Henson

I think it's not particularly necessary to lead a religious life. People progress just as well in music, or art, or math or science or gardening or whatever. It all seems to work as well and the process is good. ~ Jim Henson

Somebody like a Piggy or a Kermit, there needs to be several versions and so there will be several of them. ~ Jim Henson

Yeah, I did some small parts in high school and the first year of college and then fairly soon thereafter I settled into the backstage scenery, and then at the University of Maryland I was doing posters for their productions. ~ Jim Henson

If anything, there's a difference in working with color in England and the color in the US. ~ Jim Henson

Jim Henson was the only piece of fan mail I ever wrote when I was a little kid. ~ Neil Patrick Harris

At the University of Maryland, my first year I started off planning to major in art because I was interested in theatre design, stage design or television design. ~ Jim Henson

Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life, enjoy it. ~ Jim Henson

Only time can heal your broken heart. Just as only time can heal his broken arms and legs. ~ Jim Henson

No time is wasted time ~ Jim Henson

Jim Henson was an absolute genius. ~ Marcus Brigstocke

There was a little afternoon show that was called Afternoon. Back in those days in television, most local stations had a midday show for housewives that had a series of things. It was like a variety show for midday. ~ Jim Henson

Certainly I've lived my whole life through my imagination. But the world of imagination is there for all of us
a sense of play, of pretending, of wonder. It's there with us as we live. ~ Jim Henson

No, there's not much competition between puppeteers in general because everybody's working their own style. ~ Jim Henson

When people told themselves their past with stories, explained their present with stories, foretold the future with stories, the best place by the fire was kept for the storyteller. ~ Jim Henson Company

[Kids] don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are. ~ Jim Henson

"Stuffed and Unstrung" started as a workshop, actually, classes within our company. We found that our puppeteers were not ad libbing as well as traditionally, Jim Henson Company puppeteers have. We're sort of famous for going off script a little bit and ad libbing. ~ Brian Henson

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great. You have no power over me! ~ Jim Henson

Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. ~ Jim Henson

Here's some simple advice: Always be yourself. Never take yourself to seriously. And beware of advice from experts, pigs, and members of Parliament. ~ Jim Henson

Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart. ~ Jim Henson

Someday we'll find it the rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me ~ Jim Henson

I was very interested in theatre, mostly in stage design. I did a little bit of acting. ~ Jim Henson

She wondered what was the point of doing anything. She might as well go this way, or that, or stand still, or cry. Maybe just havin' yourself a good time was the best anyone could hope for. ~ A.C.H. Smith

We thought it would be fun to try to design a show that would work well internationally and so that' s what we're intending to do with Fraggle Rock, and we are indeed now selling it around the world. ~ Jim Henson

I have always been a fan of Jim Henson, and I love his Creature Shop creations, the skill of the puppets and the characters he creates. ~ Honeysuckle Weeks

Yeah, I think we did the term Muppets before we got the show Sam and Friends - a few months after I started working. ~ Jim Henson

We wanted to premiere it in New York, because New York is sort of the home of the Jim Henson Company and it's sort of the tone and flavor, always, of the puppet work that we've done traditionally. And that's what brought us here and now we're here. ~ Brian Henson

The most sophisticated people I've ever known had just one thing in common: they were all in touch with their inner children. ~ Jim Henson

I believe that my father had some kind of direct experience of the spiritual nature of reality, maybe a vision, that he tried to convey perhaps unconsciously in his work- that there is a different, more loving and transcendent reality beyond this world of imagined conflicts. ~ Lisa Henson

At the time of Polaroid - and I did a couple of other commercials just before I stopped doing that stuff - at that point I was at the level where they respect you and your opinion and all that sort of thing. ~ Jim Henson

This is certainly the raunchiest, if you use that word, raunchy. The roots of Jim Henson, though, was adult comedy. ~ Brian Henson

Simple is good." - Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets ~ Montgomery J. Granger

I do remember doing shows strictly in black and white, too, so you're right. ~ Jim Henson

There was a horrible, wrenching sound, a screech of protesting metal, and one of the screams peaked at a shivering, violent point - then dissolved into a strangled mishmash of sounds, of tearing and snapping and popping, of gurgling and thudding. And when they were finished, something, something big, with a cavernous, resonating chest, snarled from not ten feet beyond the security door. ~ Jim Butcher

I talked about 12 to 18 months, and that's about reaffirming our foundation for sustained growth: getting the discipline back, getting the basics right, getting the customer focus back ... so by the end of next year, I hope most of that's in place. ~ Jim Cantalupo

When my son was born, I decided I wasn't really into working 12 hours a day. That slowed me down a little bit. ~ Jim McKelvey

I hurled my fear and my loneliness, my love and my respect, my rage and my pain. I made of my thoughts a hammer, infused with the fires of creation and tempered in the icy power of the darkest guardian the earth had ever known. ~ Jim Butcher

Is that mistletoe?"
Jim nodded.
"Cool. We don't have that in Australia."
"So you've never kissed beneath the mistletoe."
She shook her head.
"When in Canada..." His eyes searched hers.
"When in Canada," she repeated softly.
Jim pulled her close, parted his lips slightly, gazed into her eyes and she forgot to breathe. Everything around them fell away. She forgot the people behind her, forgot the crowd in the church, forgot Scumbag Steve. Forgot that it was Christmas and she was in a foreign country about to kiss a stranger. None of it mattered. She gazed into Jim's eyes, losing herself in the soft gray depths.
"May this kiss be the beginning of your Christmas dreams come true," he whispered as he gently pressed his lips into hers. ~ Nicki Edwards

There should be some kind of rule against needing to kill anything more than once. ~ Jim Butcher

If we don't change, millions of American families are just one medical emergency, or one layoff, away from financial disaster and bankruptcy. ~ Jim Cooper

Management guru Jim Collins has some good words here. He and Morten T. Hansen studied leadership in turbulent times. They looked at more than twenty thousand companies, sifting through data in search of an answer to this question: Why in uncertain times do some companies thrive while others do not? They concluded, "[Successful leaders] are not more creative. They're not more visionary. They're not more charismatic. They're not more ambitious. They're not more blessed by luck. They're not more risk-seeking. They're not more heroic. And they're not more prone to making big, bold moves." Then what sets them apart? "They all led their teams with a surprising method of self-control in an out-of-control world."2 ~ Max Lucado

"Sesame Street" was really the first kid's show that my dad did. He did a couple of TV specials that were targeted for kids before "Sesame Street," but really, it was, it's kind of going back to our roots, when we start to get adult. This show gets very adult sometimes, and that's because of the audience. ~ Brian Henson

One of my favorites of all time was with Jim Jarmusch, called 'Dead Man.' I was in that with Johnny Depp. I ride really well, and I shoot a gun really well. I love the genre. Once I did Westerns, I was hooked. ~ Lance Henriksen

And you've got that look on your face again."
"I can't help it, "Ehren said. "You're about to walk to breakfast, arn't you, regardless of who is in the way?"
"Yes," Tavi said.
Ehren sighed. "Let's hear it."
Tavi told him the plan.
"That's insane," Ehren said.
"It could work."
"You arn't going to have anyone come along to bail you out this time," Ehren pointed out.
Tavi grinned. "Are you with me?"
"The plan is insane," Ehren said. "You are insane." He looked around inside the tent. "I'll need some pants. ~ Jim Butcher

This was an important part of my life. But it was also sad that we didn't play there, cause we had such alot of fans that were waiting for us and Brazilians are great people. It's now my second home. ~ Jim Capaldi

Five white candles surrounded my summoning circle, the points of an invisible pentacle. White for protection. And because they're the cheapest color at Wal-Mart. ~ Jim Butcher

Toward the end of school I started watching movies. Got a job in a movie theater in Brookline, Massachusetts. ~ Jim McKay

Learn from the negative as well as the positive, from the failures as well as the successes. ~ Jim Rohn

If you want to watch TV and also learn the correct way to remodel, evaluating those you hire, and why it's important to pay the right price to get a qualified professional--watch any of the shows that feature Mike Holmes. While they typically deal with Canadian homes, his analysis is usually spot-on in my opinion, and he repairs the shoddy work of others while teaching owners and viewers why he does what he does. ~ Jim Molinelli

Never allow the circumstances of your life to become an excuse. People will allow you to do it. But I believe we have a personal obligation to make the most of the abilities we have. ~ Jim Abbott

God rewards those who put Him first and seek to do His will. ~ Jim George