Top 85 Quotes & Sayings by Jim Henson

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.

When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope is to leave the world a little better for having been there.

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

My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.

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.

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

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

If you're doing a large, complicated character with radio controls, it might take a number of people several months to make it and if you're talking about a quick little hand puppet, it could be made in 2 days, so there's enormous range there, and no real easy generalities.

I think my own strengths are in television production.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

When I was a kid, I never saw a puppet show. I never played with puppets or had any interest in them.

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.

Well, Detroit Institute is kind of a key - probably the largest permanent collection of puppets in the US.

When The Muppet Show ended, we all sat around and said, what kind of television show would we like to do. We felt the need these days are for some quality children's programming.

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.

I've never felt any sense of competition with anybody, and we're all friends; we're all good friends.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

I spend a few minutes in meditation and prayer each morning. I find that this really helps me to start the day with a good frame of reference. As part of my prayers, I thank whoever is helping me - I'm sure that somebody or something is - I express gratitude for all my blessings and try to forgive the people that I'm feeling negative toward. I try hard not to judge anyone, and I try to bless everyone who is part of my life, particularly anyone with whom I am having any problems.

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

Take what you got and fly with it.

It's a wonderful life and I love it.

Do the jobs you like least first. It makes each successive job easier.

I know I drive some people crazy with what seems like ridiculous optimism, but it has always worked for me.

Yes, its one of the basic truths of the universe,....Things don't disappear. They just change, and change and change again.

If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn't anything you can't do if you want to.

If our 'message' is anything, it's a positive approach to life. That life is basically good. People are basically good.

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.

Music is an essential part of everything we do. Like puppetry, music has an abstract quality which speaks to a worldwide audience in a wonderful way that nourishes the soul.

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.

Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. We've done just what we set out to do. Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers and you.

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

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.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

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

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

I know it's easier to portray a world filled with cynicism and anger, where problems are solved with violence...It's an easy out. What's a whole lot tougher is to offer alternatives, to present other ways conflicts can be resolved, and to show you can have a positive impact on your world. To do that, you have to put yourself out on a limb, take chances, and run the risk of being called a do-gooder.

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.

I hope that something better comes along.

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.

We see with our eyes. We know with our hearts. Outside...Inside.

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

It all ends in one of two ways: either someone gets eaten or something blows up.

The only way the magic works is by hard work. But hard work can be fun.

I've always tried to present a positive view of the world in my work. It's so much easier to be negative and cynical and predict doom for the world than it is to try and figure out how to make things better. We have an obligation to do the latter.

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

The attitude you have as a parent is what your kids will learn from more than what you tell them. They don't remember what you try to teach them. They remember what you are.

As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.