Leonard Maltin

I had the great good fortune to interview Peggy Lee. Her memories of working with Walt Disney and his team were warm and upbeat.

While it was occasionally done here or there, nobody else had a figurehead like Walt doing it. Jack Warner wasn't on TV. Walt was the boss, but he had a real public profile and he used it to his advantage. And he became a household face.

I think people in Hollywood are afraid of sentiment because they think audiences will reject it.

Television is what made It's a Wonderful Life the classic it is today.

Timing in life is everything.

Everyone is looking for the sure thing. They are looking to hedge their bet. They think the way to do that is to go with a proven quantity, a remake of something you have already seen. That is their mindset.

Shakespeare wrote great plays that we're still watching all these years later. Charlie Chaplin made great comedies and they are still as funny today as they ever were.

I teach at USC. I have a big class of 360 kids, only about a fifth of whom are film majors. I don't just show the Hollywood blockbusters. I show independent films, foreign films, documentaries.

Beauty and the Beast became the first animated feature ever nominated for best picture.

Dumbo... makes me cry. Every single time and in the exact same spot. I just have a special affection for Dumbo.

Polar Express is not an attempt to do animation. It is a technology-based film.

Hollywood executives believe that money is both the be-all and end-all to the moviemaking process.