Walt had a marvelous intuition. And because he understood people very well, liked them and had great respect for people, there was nothing cynical about Walt.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world.
I always admired Walt's optimism. He seemed to know the direction he was going to. When I was at the studio, I remember he kept driving all of us back down to a more fundamental level all the time.
But Walt and him shared the same kind of optimism. Walt believed in himself, and he was optimistic about what he wanted to do. He just knew it will be okay, and Dali was the same way. They had a great deal in common that way.
Walt understood all of those things, and even common things about people. For instance: Usually you get your idea of what kind of day it is by looking at the horizon, because the horizon is your eye level. So what Walt did is to eliminate the horizon.
When Walt Disney was making his films, he trusted his instincts and made films for himself, but they appealed to everybody, not just kids.
He was gifted with the sly, sharp instinct for self-preservation that passes for wisdom among the rich.
I think probably I've been influenced by Chekhov and Walt Disney, if you see what I mean.
I look up to Walt Disney and what he has done.
Walt Disney was not a merchant of sadness.
His feeling was the name Walt Disney represented all of us. Walt was hanging by his teeth financially and really I think he was for most of his career. Not at all like today.